RWBY - A Remnant of Hope
by IceCreamMystery
Summary: Remnant. On the surface it looks so peaceful, beautiful and safe. However, underneath lies a world of intrigue, lies and betrayal. Most people don't know what has to be done to keep them safe, but I do. Down here, you either get to the top and hold up the sky, or you become a step for others to climb on. Some would call this world hell. Me? I adore it. I thrive on it. I love it.
1. Chapter ? - Chapter 0

How did things get this bad?

Of course, Ruby already knew the answer to that. It was all her fault.

If only she'd paid attention when she should have, maybe things would have turned out differently. If only she had stopped for a second to think, maybe she could have prevented the catalyst that sent the world into chaos.

She still remembered what her team was like before. Weiss was cold and sarcastic, but still friendly in her own way. Blake was quiet, but she still talked to her team when she needed to.

And Yang... Yang was so cheerful. So happy.

But in the end, the biggest change had to be in Ruby herself. She used to be a nice, friendly girl who never wanted to hurt anyone, and she turned into...

She cut that trail of thought off. It wasn't healthy. It wasn't something she needed to remind herself of.

Ruby knew what had to be done and she was going to do it. Nothing else mattered.

After all, if it came between having to live with a horrible decision or the extinction of the human race, she knew exactly which she was going to pick.

But still, she couldn't help thinking about the very moment when everything started going wrong:


	2. Chapter 6 - A scared Blake

Blake Belladonna ran. She ran faster than she ever had in her life. This little experiment with Beacon was over. Time to move on.

But where? Where could she possibly go now?

As she wondered the streets of Vale, she ran into the faunus she met earlier.

"Hi there. Why are you out here so late?"

"Just walking around," she answered, trying to look normal. "I needed some time away from everything."

"Well, would you be interested in coming over to my place to spend the night? It's a little messy, but it'll be better than wandering the streets until morning."

He was nice.

Too nice.

"That's okay."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Why was he asking that? Did her team get to him already? Or maybe it wasn't her team. Maybe it was the authorities.

"I'll be fine." She should have just lied. Now he had a reason to not leave her alone.

"I doubt that's true. Besides, I can't just leave you like this."

She started backing away from him. "Why not?"

"Because you look like you might get in trouble. I don't want that on my conscience."

Could this be genuine concern? Or was he trying to earn her trust so that he could betray her?

"I would prefer to be left alone," she said.

"Really? Let me tell you, you do not look like you can handle being alone right now. Just look at yourself. You're shaking, you're backing away from me, and you won't look up from the ground. You need someone to look out for you while you get a hold of yourself."

Blake looked up and met his eyes. Was he lying? Or was he trying to help? Did it matter? She was stronger than him. She could just take anything she wanted.

"I could use a place to stay, as long as I can keep an eye on you." She decided.

"What, you don't trust me?"

"Would you if you were in my shoes?"

"That would be a lot easier to answer if I had any idea what the hell is going on."

Blake didn't know what to say to that, so she remained silent.

"Anyway, let's go to my place. Then you can tell me all about yourself, including why you were hiding your true nature and what the hell is going on."

Blake touched her upper ears and realized that she must have taken off her bow somewhere in between Beacon and wherever she was.

She quickly tied it on and followed Sun. On the way, she remembered to look out for anyone following them. She was very careful to hide her face from anyone they passed on the street.

* * *

"I can't believe it," Weiss said, still looking at the open door her teammate had disappeared out of.

"That's understandable when you don't know what to believe," Ruby said.

"I know what to believe, I don't want to. What are we supposed to do now?"

"We go out and look for her. What do you mean what are we supposed to do?" Yang put her gauntlets on and headed for the door.

"Wait," Ruby said.

"What? Do you expect me to just stand around while Blake might be in trouble? You do realize she's my partner, right? I'm the one that's supposed to have her back."

"We can't go out blindly. We need to form a strategy, think up a plan. Wandering aimlessly isn't going to get us anywhere."

"While you're thinking, she's getting further away from us. We need to move, you can think on the way."

"Yang," Ruby said a little louder than she was used to. "Do you really think you can find her? Even if you go right now, do you think you could track her down? This is Blake we're talking about. Stealth is pretty much her thing."

"Not to mention that even if it wasn't, she's still a White Fang operative. What do you think is going to happen if you do find her?"

"Weiss, one more word and I'm going to punch you into the next room." Yang's eyes were already red. Great.

"We don't know what "we" meant. Until we have all the facts it would be better if we didn't make things worse by speculating." Ruby wondered if she was really going to be able to calm them down.

"Worse? I don't think there's such a thing as worse than this. Anyone with half a brain knows that "we" meant the White Fang and from there it's pretty clear that she was here as nothing more than a spy and possible assassin. Or maybe she was here to kidnap me and use me as a bargaining chip against my father."

"News flash, the world doesn't revolve around you, princess." Yang cocked her gauntlets.

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP."

Yang and Weiss exchanged a look, before both looking at Ruby.

"Will you two stop looking at me like I'm an alien?"

"Sorry sis, I just never thought I'd be the one to make you finally snap."

"It was a joint effort," Weiss said.

"Anyway, Yang – out, Weiss – stay."

"What am I, a dog," Yang muttered as she stormed out of the room.

"I'll be right back," Ruby told Weiss and left after her sister.

* * *

The moment she was out of the door, Yang took off one of her gauntlets and punched the wall with all of her strength. Surprisingly, the wall held.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know. What am I supposed to do? You're right, if she doesn't want to be found there's no way I can get to her. And she doesn't want to be found because she thinks all of us just assumed the same thing Weiss did."

"For all we know Weiss may be right. I'm not saying I think he is, but it is possible. As is her being completely wrong. We shouldn't make any assumptions before actually knowing anything."

Yang sighed before sitting down on the floor. "You think a lot more than you used to."

"What does that even mean?"

"That your first reaction isn't to act, it's to think. That's impressive."

"It is one of the qualities required of leadership."

"I guess so." Yang sighed and slid down the wall. She knocked on it lightly as if to apologize about punching it. "How are you doing, sis? That must have hit you as hard as it hit the rest of us, but you're holding up surprisingly well."

"This is my test as a leader."

Yang wondered why her sister was going on and on about that leader stuff. "Whatever."

How insensitive. "It's not whatever, this is a big deal. If Blake doesn't show up for classes on Monday, it's going to be on my head."

"It's not your fault she ran away."

"Yes, it is. The actions of my subordinates are my responsibility."

"I've gotten into plenty of trouble and you never said anything."

"It's not like they come to me for every single thing, however something like this..."

"I get it. You're in as much trouble as Blake at this point."

"Well, no... Weiss isn't mad at me, at least."

"Speaking of, go talk to her before she gets all grumpy. I'm going out."

"Nope, you're apologizing and so is she when I'm done with her. Wait here." Saying that, Ruby headed back to the dorm.

"What did I do so wrong with my life that I have to take orders from my baby sister?" Yang muttered under her breath.

* * *

"So how does it feel?" Ruby said the moment she came in.

"What are you talking about," Weiss asked.

"Being betrayed by a friend. How does it feel?"

Weiss sat down on her bed. "It doesn't feel good, I'll tell you that. Why did something like this happen?"

"Would you be offended if I said because you're too much of a bitch for your own good?"

It was pretty offensive. "Offended? No. I work pretty hard at being a bitch. It's a great defense mechanism. The best part is, it worked. Better to get this stuff out in the open before it's a real problem."

"It is a real problem. Like it or not, Blake is a part of our team."

"Was."

"Is." Ruby stared at her for about a minute before she broke. "At least give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Maybe, but I'm still going to be a bitch about it."

"I expect nothing less." Ruby smiled like she had just won something before raising her voice. "Yang, get your butt in here."

The door crashed open as the girl being summoned went through it. Not literally. She did open it. With a kick.

"Okay, let's go. Operation find Blake!"

"Could you guys quiet down? We're trying to sleep here," was heard from the room next door.

"I'll go get them," Yang said. Ruby could almost imagine the lightbulb on top of her head going off.

"That would end even worse than me finding her," Weiss said.

"She's right. They have nothing to do with this. Let's not get them involved."

"Great, you're already ganging up on me."

"Yang… We're all on edge and we're all tired. Could you not make this any harder than it has to be?"

"If it wasn't for the ice queen, there wouldn't be a problem to begin with."

"Am I going to have to take you on another timeout? Or are you going to behave?"

"Why are you talking to me like I'm five?"

"Because you're acting like a five-year-old. Now, like I was saying, we're all stressed out and taking it out on each other. We should go to sleep before the two of you tear each other apart. We can discuss this when our heads have cleared."

Ruby climbed up to her bed. "Oh, I almost forgot. Both of you apologize."

Yang sighed dramatically. "I'm sorry for not taking your stupid and unrealistic viewpoint into consideration."

"And I'm sorry for exposing an obvious threat before she stabbed us in the back."

"Weiss."

Weiss did her best to ignore her.

"Weiss." Ruby tried again in an even nicer tone.

"What?"

"You're not going to bed until you apologize properly." She was holding a whistle.

"Fine. I'm sorry for having a realistic vision of the world on the matter and not taking into account your idealistic and sheltered opinions on a subject that is completely incomprehensible to the likes of you."

"I'm going to hit her now." Yang said to Ruby before getting closer to Weiss.

"You're both equally wrong." Ruby hugged her pillow and was snoring softly seconds later. She was totally not sleeping.

"I'm going to sleep too," Weiss said, completely ignoring the fact that Yang was right in front of her face. "And for what it's worth, I truly hope you're right."

"It's an act, isn't it? Your personality." Yang asked, but there was no answer.

She was probably awake.

Maybe it wasn't an act after all.

* * *

"This is where you live?" Blake asked looking around the room.

"Hey, there aren't a lot of places with rent this cheap around here."

The "apartment" was about as big as your average garage and a lot messier.

"You pay rent for this?"

"Not really. The people that own this place don't exactly know I'm here. But it is in a killer location, you know?"

Blake looked around. "I really don't."

"Oh come on, it was awesome before I moved in."

"I don't think that's supposed to be a good thing."

"Hey, I'm a guy. Be happy there isn't any porn or whatever lying around."

"Do you even have a bathroom?"

"Sure, it's down the hall. Just make sure no one sees you coming out of here."

Great.

Blake wondered if it wouldn't be better to let herself be caught by the authorities. They say prison is nice this time of the year. Then again, if she was arrested as a member of the White Fang, former or no, she wouldn't make it to prison.

"Hey, listen, there's a nice café across the street and the rest of Vale is all around me. This place is nothing more than a bedroom."

Sun climbed out of the window and extended his hand. "Care to join me to the garden?"

Blake reluctantly took his hand and they went up to the room with the starlit ceiling.

Also known as the roof.


	3. Chapter 7 - An immoral practicality

The last two days of searching had been completely fruitless, but Yang wasn't ready to give up.

"I still say we should split up," she said. "We'd cover more ground that way."

"I think we should all be there if we do find her." Ruby said.

"Do you want to push her into a corner again?"

"No, but I would rather risk that if we can resolve all of our issues in one go."

"Like that's going to happen." Weiss said.

"All Blake and White Fang issues," Ruby corrected herself.

"More likely, but still a long shot."

"I don't know, I think she had fun being with us and I certainly enjoyed having her as a teammate. I hope we manage to work things out." Well at least Ruby was being positive.

"I won't get in the way. That's the best you're getting out of me."

"Oh, I'll get something better out of you all right," Yang said. "I think I still owe you a beating."

Weiss turned around with an annoyed look on her face. "You know what, bring it on. I am tired of you pushing everyone you meet around by threatening them with violence. If we're going to be clearing up our issues then let's get this over with." She drew her rapier.

Yang didn't expect Weiss to snap over something as small as that. Well, she couldn't take her words back now, could she? "You sure about this? I could let it go this one time."

"Really Xiao Long? You're nothing but a bully after all. Always pushing everyone around, but when it comes to someone actually calling you on your shit you get all defensive. It makes me sick."

"What are you talking about? Did you finally go crazy for real?"

"When was the last time you let something you wanted go? When was the last time you used something than violence or the threat of violence to get it? Even your favorite story that you always brag about clearly paints you as the bad guy. Girl walks into a club, acts like a brat, assaults the owner and is then somehow angry about being asked to leave? Not to mention what happens next."

Yang had a very dark look on her face. "You're lecturing me on being a brat and a bully? You?! After what you did to Blake?"

"What did I do to Blake? I called her out on her hypocrisy and distressed her enough to let slip who she really is? I don't think that's a bad thing."

Yang grit her teeth. There was no way of arguing with someone like that.

"Ruby, I am going to beat her up. Do you have any complaints?"

"Nope. I'm tired of always having to play peacemaker. I want it resolved by the end of the day. Now, I see Penny over there, so I'm going to go talk to her while you two fight or get drunk or whatever it is you end up doing."

Much to Yang's dismay, Ruby turned the corner without looking back.

"You're a lot less aggressive now that you don't have your sister to hold you back. Like most dogs, you're all bark and no bite."

"I don't understand you. Why are you trying so hard to pick a fight?" Yang asked.

"I'm trying to make a point."

"What, that I'm a bully? Don't bother. I already know it."

"I suppose I shouldn't make such a big deal out of it if you stop trying to push me around or bother any of the other students." Weiss sheathed her rapier. "I've said everything I wanted to say. Do you have anything you want to say to me?"

Yang was surprised at the sudden change in attitude. So Weiss Schnee really was a two-faced bitch.

Well, might as well get it all out in the open then.

"You're annoying, obnoxious, bratty and spoiled. You also think you're better than everyone around you, even though your abilities are subpar. You're fierce and dedicated, but also cynical and, at times, outright paranoid."

"When have I been paranoid?"

"You think Blake is an agent sent to infiltrate Beacon for the sole reason of assassinating you!"

She didn't respond immediately. Probably thinking about her answer.

"That's not paranoia, that's… the kind of feeling you get when you're betrayed by someone you thought you could trust."

"She didn't betray you. People can't change the past, you know. Maybe she's a faunus and maybe she's even a member of the White Fang, but that doesn't mean she still is or wanted to be in the first place. You have to think beyond your own narrow mind sometimes." Yang looked at a nearby clock tower. It was getting late. "Do you want to continue this at the bar or what? Ruby is probably the best person to talk to Blake anyway. She has an innocence about her that makes you all hopeful."

"I don't go to bars," Weiss said. "Besides, don't even get me started on your drinking."

"Oh, come on, I have a drink with friends once in a while. Doesn't make me the town drunk. Besides, it will be fun. Maybe after a few drinks we'll get in an actual fight. By then we should be drunk enough that we won't hurt each other."

"I don't drink."

"Well that's an improvement isn't it? Now you can go to bars."

"That doesn't mean I want to be in one."

"You know what, fine. Go search the city hoping you don't find her on your own. If you feel like joining me, give me a call."

"I won't be drinking," Weiss changed her answer, "but I might as well accompany you."

"Atta girl, Weiss. Ruby'll take care of Blake, you just chill with me."

* * *

Blake and Sun were enjoying yet another day of doing nothing of note when Blake finally gathered up the courage to tell him about her past.

"I was once a very bad person," she began.

"Really?" Sun said before she could get another word out.

"Yes. I hurt people. A lot of them."

"Do you regret it?" What kind of question was that?

"Of course I do."

"Then you know better now."

"Yes, but that doesn't change what I've done." She was starting to realize Sun might not be the best listener.

"So what? People make mistakes all the time. It doesn't make you a bad person."

"People should be held accountable for their mistakes. What if you kill someone and tell their family you made a mistake. Are they going to accept that?"

"Did you kill someone?" Well, she did plan to ease into the topic.

"No. My partner always took care of it. I never pulled the trigger."

"Your partner? That sounds a lot more serious than I expected. Were you part of some spec ops program or something?"

"I'm a faunus." Blake reminded him.

"Yeah, I know that..." The silence was deafening. "Oh."

"I think you understand now."

"Yeah."

There was a long silence between them. Blake decided to try telling her story again.

"They took me in when I was just a child. I spent the majority of my life believing we were doing the right thing. And maybe we were, in the beginning. But things changed and people started getting hurt and I was starting to have doubts, but then we saw better results than ever, so I convinced myself that we were still doing the right thing. Then I found myself having to sit back while a train was blown up, along with everyone in it."

"Did you?"

"No, I didn't. I betrayed the people that took me in and raised me."

"Well," Sun said, but seemed to be at a loss as to what he could actually say to make her feel better. "At least we know you weren't a bad person. If you were, you wouldn't have stood up to them."

"If I wasn't a bad person I would have rebelled against them a lot sooner. However, we were told that the ends would justify the means. What does it matter if a few humans die, if it means that we will get the respect we deserve?"

"What does it matter if a few faunus die, if it means the kingdoms keep being supplied with dust?"

"So the Schnee are exactly like the White Fang? That's... ironic I guess."

"Yeah. Both parties have their reasons for doing things the way they do. I'm not going to argue in favor of the Schnee, but to them the efficiency with which they get the dust that all of the kingdoms of Remnant need to survive means more than people's lives."

"Everyone assumes that their problems are the most important and that their opponents' problems are negligible."

"Well, at least it seems like you don't still think that way. I think you'll be fine."

"I don't know. You understand, but will my team? Will Weiss?"

"Weiss? I'm assuming you mean the white-haired Schnee that was with you when we first met. That will be a problem."

"Tell me about it."

They fell silent. Blake took a sip of her now cold tea.

That went better than expected.

Then again, her expectations weren't all that great.

"So what now? Are you going back to the White Fang?" He asked.

"I don't think they would take me back even if I tried."

"Why not? You're a fighter and I'm betting they need every last one of those they can get."

"What do you think terrorists do to deserters? Besides, I had my reasons for leaving. Going back now would go against everything I believe in."

Sun had a smile as he sipped his teacup, which he was holding with his tail. "What do you believe in, by the way?"

Blake wondered how to say it. Her thoughts had always stayed in her head, so putting them into words was harder than she expected. "I believe that there should be a better way for our kind to fight for our rights than actual violence. We should try to find common ground with humans, not drive a bigger wedge between us."

"Then tell that to your team. They're human, so if they can see things the way you can, maybe your ideals are possible. If not, I guess you'll have to rethink your beliefs."

He had a point. Blake's team was made up of the perfect people for this. Weiss who was clearly racist, Yang who seemed like she might be understanding under the right circumstances, and Ruby.

"That could actually work. I could end up fixing things with all of them. We could actually go back to the way we were." She stopped herself, realizing how that sounded. "Am I being naïve?"

"No. Humans and faunus are the same. We would be able to understand each other if we tried. I get along with my team. You got along with yours. The only thing standing in the way of your ideals is the prejudice of both parties." He took a sip from his cup. "Humans think of us as freaks or monsters. Most of them are afraid of us because of how different we are. The same can be said for us. We think of them as freaks and monsters too. We just happen to be the minority, so they ended up on top and we're the ones who need to do something about it."

Everything he said made sense and she certainly wasn't innocent when it came to discrimination against humans. Especially in her White Fang days.

"So, what do you do about it?"

Sun grinned lazily. "Nothing."

"Really?"

"Well yeah. I do absolutely nothing about it, I just live my life as if it wasn't a problem. I don't care if the person I'm talking to has animalistic attributes, I care if they're a nice person. I don't do anything out of the ordinary when it comes to humans in the hopes that they'll treat me, and the rest of my species, the same way."

"That's… actually not a bad solution."

Sun just smiled in response.

His worldview certainly was easygoing. Blake wished she could be the same, but she couldn't bring herself to go outside without her bow. Even now, it covered her ears, looking like a fashionable accessory.

"I think I would like to find the White Fang," she surprised herself by saying. "If I told them what you told me, maybe we could get through to them."

"We? I don't think I'm ready to involve myself with a bunch of lunatics like them just yet." He said. "No offence."

"Some taken. You don't have to come with me if you don't want to."

"Well, I can't just leave you alone, but do you even know where to find them?"

Blake fell silent. If anyone could find the White Fang, they definitely wouldn't tell her. Even as a former member, she wasn't sure where to even begin looking for them.

"They're allegedly stealing dust, right?" Sun asked.

"Yeah, I heard something like that. I don't see how that helps us, though. We can't guard every dust shop in Vale in the hopes they show up."

"Weeeell, you know that ship I came here on? I overheard some guys talking about a huge dust shipment coming in from Atlas. I say we kill two birds with one stone. We find out who's been stealing all the dust and if it is them, you can have a little chat with them."

"We can't be the only ones who thought of this. The place will be swarming with cops. There's no way whoever is stealing the dust is going to try anything."

"You may have a point, but from what I've noticed, the Vale police force doesn't exactly like to get their hands dirty. They'll go after a thief, but if it looks like said thief might give them too much trouble, they back off. The White Fang are the definition of trouble." Blake decided not to linger on the thought that the thief in question was probably Sun himself.

"What about the Schnee? They'll never leave their precious dust unguarded. Well, not until it's paid for, of course."

"Do you really think the White Fang will be stopped by a couple of guards? Come on, you were a part of them. I've heard stories of the kinds of things they've done."

Blake imagined what would happen if someone like Adam showed up.

"We need to get there right now."

When Sun didn't react, she pulled him with her. "Whoa, what's the hurry?"

"If they're going after an entire shipment of dust, they might have sent one of their lieutenants to make sure nothing goes wrong."

"Okay, so what? It'll take a while to transport an entire shipment of dust and it isn't even night yet."

"If they send the person I think they would send for something like this, a lot of people might end up dead. We have to get there first." She said and continued dragging him through the streets.

* * *

Ruby and Penny continued walking around in search of Blake.

"So, Penny, do you have any ideas?"

"You have known her for a lot longer than I have. I believe that if you do not know where she is, I would be of no help."

Good point. Also kind of depressing. "I guess I didn't know her all that well then."

"I'm sure that isn't the case. Perhaps it is because the two of you know each other so well that she can think of a place where she can hide from you."

"Nope. That's what I thought yesterday, so I've been searching in a completely random pattern. It doesn't seem to be working either."

"Have you considered the possibility that she may not be in Vale at all?"

"Yes, Penny, I have. I considered and rejected it."

"May I ask why?"

"Because if she did run that far we'd never find her."

"But that doesn't mean it isn't possible."

"Of course it's possible. However, if it is true, then that means we've already failed and should give up. Do you think I'm going to give up?"

"No, I do not."

"So whether she's in Vale or not is completely irrelevant for our search, right?"

"I see. That is correct. Do you think she could be staying with a friend?"

"Even if she is, that doesn't impact our search."

"Why not."

"Because I don't know where any of her friends live or what they look like, or if she even has any."

"Friend Ruby, am I annoying you?"

"No, Penny. You could think of something that leads us to her after all. Besides, I think it's nice that we're talking. Walking in silence would be a little awkward."

"I wonder if Weiss and Yang are having better luck." Penny said. "They seemed very capable."

* * *

In the meantime Yang and Weiss were sitting in a darkened corner of Yang's favorite bar.

"You know, we're more alike than you think," Yang said.

"How do you figure?"

"We're both rebels, both people who fight for anything they want. We both tend to push people around quite a bit." Weiss was looking skeptical.

"We both have daddy issues, we both have an annoying little sister." Weiss said. "And that's pretty much it."

"Hey, I do not have daddy issues," Yang protested. Although it was interesting for her to find out that Weiss had a sister.

"And I'm hardly a rebel. You assume too much."

"Isn't it unusual for the heiress of the biggest company on Remnant to train for a job with a high mortality rate?"

"The people of my family have to prove themselves worthy of our name if they want anything to do with us. One of my uncles is a part of the board of directors, in spite of not having a drop of Schnee blood."

"So are you saying that your family is okay with you being here?"

"Of course not. But choosing to do things differently does not make me a rebel. At best I'm... not as easy to push around. I don't rebel for the sake of rebelling, so that label hardly applies to me."

Yang took a slow drink from her glass. Weiss certainly saw herself in a very interesting light.

"You said you have a sister. What is she like?"

"An annoying brat."

"That's it?"

"Yes. She's a civilian with no claim in the company."

"I didn't ask about her status, I asked about her personality."

"Your typical teenage girl. Self-obsessed and stupid." Ouch. That was harsh. Yang decided to change the subject before Weiss said something that would require punching.

"Then what about your father? What did you mean when you said you have issues with him?"

"Oh, the usual. He broke one of my dolls when I was a kid. He practically enslaves faunus for his own benefits, those kinds of things." Weiss took a sip from her orange juice.

"So you admit that what he's doing is wrong?"

"Of course I do. However, it isn't like he does it out of hate for the faunus. Do you have any idea how much the demand for dust has risen in the past couple of decades?"

Yang looked around and counted two refrigerators, three signs and a cash register that all worked on dust. "I'm guessing a lot."

"Yes and the supply would have stayed largely the same unless some more drastic measures were taken."

"Such as overworking his miners?"

"To start with. I would say more, but I am sworn to silence."

"Sworn to silence sounds so dramatic," Yang muttered.

"It is. There is an urban legend in Atlas that any deal you make with the Schnee has to take place with candles and robes in the woods in the middle of the night."

"Is that how it is? Rich people are weird."

"Nope. I signed a contract. I do like some of the rumors about us, though." She smiled.

Yang smiled back. Weiss could be oddly charming in her own way sometimes.

"I wonder if Ruby already found Blake," she said.

Yang drained her glass in a single breath and said. "If she had, she would have contacted us."

"I guess." Weiss went back to looking at her orange juice.

"Good talk," Yang said.

"Yeah."

* * *

When Sun and Blake got there, the freighter had just arrived and the dock workers were starting to take the shipment crates out.

It was a long time after they were done that Blake finally saw movement in the darkness.

The white masks were easily recognizable.

"They're here," Blake said.

Sun, who had been playing with a ball came next to her, looking at the docks.

"So it was them."

"Yeah."

Blake took her bow off and was about to go down and meet with them when she saw a Bullhead approach and land.

A human walked out and told the White Fang to hurry up as they attached the containers full of dust to the Bullhead.

"Why are the White Fang working with a human? It doesn't make sense," Blake said, going back behind their cover.

At least Adam wasn't there.

"Wait, isn't that a good thing? Faunus and humans understanding each other and all that?"

"They're here to commit a crime."

"Right, forgot about that. But I thought the White Fang were supposed to be terrorists. Why would an organization like that turn into petty thieves?" He didn't seem to notice the contradiction with him being a petty thief and all.

"Do you think it's easy to fund a terrorist organization?" That gave her an idea. "Maybe that human hired them. But that still doesn't explain anything. Why would they take a job from a human? They can barely tolerate their presence on this planet, so there's no way they would willingly work with one." She watched the human berate one of the faunus for not knowing how to attach the cable. "Especially one like him."

"Okay, I'm not really following, but do you want me to go get the cops or something?"

"Didn't we already have a discussion about the cops? At best they're going to lock you up for your stealing and ignore anything you say. We need to deal with this ourselves."

Sun suddenly got the feeling that his partner in not crime might do something extremely stupid. "By deal with this ourselves you don't really mean attack half a dozen people and a Bullhead without a plan, right?"

But Blake had already left his side by the time he started speaking.

"Damn it."

* * *

Blake Belladonna sneaked up on the man and pressed a blade to his neck before he had a chance to do anything.

"What is going on here," she yelled. "The proud White Fang doing a human's bidding? Have you become the animals they think we are?"

"Why you seem to be terribly misinformed, young lady," the man said. "You see, the While Fang and I have gone into a joint business together and we are having, oh, so much fun."

There was only one thing Blake was sure of. She had no idea what the hell was going on.

"What is going on," she asked, still talking to the White Fang. "Why are you stealing dust for him? What did he promise you?"

"Promise them? Why I promised them freedom," the man said. "Now if you'll excuse us, we have work to do."

He tried to walk forward, but the blade at his neck stopped him.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what's going on." Blake said, but at the same time she couldn't help worrying about all of the guns pointed at her. Then she heard another Bullhead coming.

"Are we really that behind schedule," the man muttered. He tried to twist his head in the direction the sound was coming from. Blake looked behind her and he took that as an opportunity to fire the gun built into his cane at the ground, sending both of them flying.

* * *

Ruby and Penny were walking in silence.

Ruby thought that street seemed familiar, but then remembered that, by now all of Vale should feel familiar to her. Just how long had they spent walking around?

Just then, she heard an explosion in the distance.

"Penny, is that what I think it is?"

"If you are thinking of a highly explosive fifteen millimeter high concentration fire dust round, fired into the ground at close range, then yes."

Oh, Penny was a weapon enthusiast? They really are going to become the best of friends.

"We might as well check it out," Ruby said and they started running towards the sounds of more explosions.

* * *

Before Blake could recover she heard something coming for her. She dodged a red projectile at the last second and saw the man firing more.

She evaded again and Sun came in to deflect the last two.

"Let's get him," Blake said and the two of them went on the offensive.

Sun took out his staff and used it to clear out the White Fang around the man with the bowler hat while Blake went for him directly.

"Okay, kitty-cat, you wanna play?" The man said, swinging his cane around wildly, firing at her every time she got close. Soon a click told her that he had run out of ammunition.

She took this chance and rushed to him, both swords raised to strike.

He blocked easily and then kicked her. She managed to use a clone to defend herself, but she wasn't prepared for him completely ignoring it and continuing to attack her. She had a hard time fending him off, even though she backed up with every one of his attacks and used clones liberally.

She was just buying time for Sun to come back her up.

When he did, the man backed up and used the time to reload his cane. Then he attacked both of them again, pushing them back a little more before firing his cane up in the air.

Blake was confused for a second, before she heard the sound of something very heavy falling through the air.

She realized that the man must have led them to the spot under the container held up by the Bullhead so that he could use gravity squish them.

Both she and Sun dove out of the way, but in different directions, leaving them separated.

What was worse, she saw that the Bullhead that had been circling overhead had landed and dropped off more of the White Fang, while yet another Bullhead appeared over the horizon. She was ready to bet that one wasn't friendly either.

* * *

When Ruby and Penny got there things did not look good. Blake and the faunus from the docks were fighting against Roman Torchwick and it looked like he was getting ready to finish the faunus off.

What to do? Firing her sweetheart would require a few seconds and the faunus didn't have that long. In the end she yelled to get Torchwick's attention, knowing that he wouldn't hesitate to attack her on sight.

If only Penny wasn't here. She might get caught up in the fight at this rate.

As Ruby expected of him, he shot at her. She knew that she couldn't dodge because Penny was behind her, so she closed her eyes to protect them and braced herself for the impact.

It never came. Instead, in front of her stood Penny, holding a sword, which she definitely did not have on her before. She deflected another shot and said. "Ruby, I believe these people are trying to hurt my friends. Would it be okay for me to fight them?"

"Yeah, just be careful," Ruby said, her heart still beating hard from nearly getting shot in the face.

"Don't worry about me, I'm combat ready!"

With those words she jumped into the fray and started dispatching people by the dozens. When the Bullheads started firing at her, she deflected the bullets and then fired off some sort of energy beam from the end of her sword.

It was probably her semblance. The beam tore through the armored aircraft with ease.

As expected from another weapon enthusiast, she had a tool to channel both her semblance and fighting skill perfectly.

One Bullhead managed to avoid the beam and was now trying to get away. Penny threw her sword which Ruby saw was connected to some kind of wire, which Penny held and pulled, making the Bullhead tip and crash into the ground.

In the commotion, she realized that she had lost sight of Roman. She chastised herself silently for not paying attention.

* * *

Blake was understandably very nervous. Soon she would have to explain everything to her team. There were a lot of things that would be better off unsaid, but they may end up biting her in the butt later on, so maybe it would be best if everything was out in the open from now on.

Sun apologized before sneaking away from the police, as, by his words, he didn't want to spend the night behind bars. Ruby had left her with the police so that she could look for Penny, who had somehow managed to disappear into thin air

Maybe it was for the best that they wouldn't be around to see the result of Weiss learning everything.

"Yooo, Blake!" Yang's voice sounded a little different for some reason.

"Hello."

"Why hello, Miss Belladonna. Tired of running?" At least Weiss was acting like herself. "Sorry, that sounded nicer in my head." She elbowed Yang. "You said a joke would break the ice, but now she's giving me a scary look all of a sudden."

Yang laughed loudly and pushed Weiss forward, almost making her fall into Blake's arms.

"I'm sorry," Weiss said as she stumbled back. "She wanted to go have a drink."

"I know, she stinks of alcohol. Anyway, I have something to say to you."

"What?"

"I want you to know that I am no longer associated with the White Fang." She felt like saying more, but cut herself off. It would be best to deliver this in small chunks.

"Good. Now let's go." She started walking in the direction of Beacon.

"I thought you'd have questions." Blake said.

Weiss stopped and turned around. "I don't. I honestly don't care anymore."

"You don't care?"

"I spent the last three days walking around looking for you. In that time I decided that I'm angrier about having to scour the city for days than I am about your involvement with the White Fang."

"But I thought you hated them."

"Yeah, well turns out I hate the feeling I got when you ran away a lot more, so next time please don't do that. Just come to us, no matter how afraid you may be. I swear, I'm not as scary as I pretend to be."

Weiss seemed different somehow and it wasn't alcohol, Blake couldn't smell any on her breath.

* * *

"Penny has officially disappeared into thin air," Ruby said when she finally returned. "I guess I should have expected it."

"Do you think she may be in trouble," Blake asked.

"You did see her pull a Bullhead out of the sky, right?"

"Penny pulled a Bullhead out of the sky?" Yang said. "If you hadn't been this damn slow we could have seen something really cool." She playfully punched Weiss on the arm.

To Ruby's immense surprise, Weiss laughed. "Maybe, or maybe if you could have driven your bike it wouldn't have mattered if I'm slow."

"Oh please, I could have driven us here on a wheelie while doing a handstand on the handlebars if that asshole hadn't taken my keys."

"Weiss, why is Yang drunk?" Ruby decided to ask the slightly more sober-looking member of her team.

"Uhhh, teambuilding?"

"Are you drunk as well?"

"Maybe?"

"Was that a question?"

"Is this an interrogation?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here, young lady." Ruby said firmly, even if she couldn't help cracking a smile.

"She got you, sis," Yang said. "You answered first."

"Seriously though, your teammate goes missing and the two of you go get drunk? I can't believe it."

"Hey, you suggested it."

"I was joking!" Ruby yelled. "Weiss, I thought at least you had more common sense."

"Weiss hasn't been drinking," Blake said.

"Then why is she swaying in rhythm with Yang?"

"I get a contact high very easily," Weiss said in a sing-song voice. "It's really annoying. Anytime I'm near someone who is in some way intoxicated, I experience the same thing they do. It's a thing, okay? I don't feel like explaining it any better right now."

"You're weird," Yang said.

"Says the girl who burps whiskey vapor fireballs."

Ruby gave Weiss a long look. "Is that even possible," she asked Blake.

"She probably ignites it with her semblance."

"Not you too! Why is this happening to me? Why won't my own team take me seriously and answer my questions?"

"What was I supposed to answer about Weiss? How would I know?"

"You could have at least said that and not joined them in making fun of me," Ruby pouted.

"Aaaanyway." Yang said a little too loudly. "Let's get back to Beacon, we still have to celebrate finding Blake. Time for round two!"

Both Blake and Ruby looked like they wanted to find a place to hide. Yang and Weiss were giggling all the way back to the dorm.


	4. Chapter 4 - A lonely Weiss

**Earlier**

* * *

Weiss Schnee knew all too well the feeling of loneliness.

After all, she had never had a real friend her entire life.

She wondered why she was having such pointless thoughts as she rolled out of bed. She had spent a few hours just lying around, letting her thoughts consume her, even though she probably shouldn't have.

Her teammates hadn't even bothered to wake her up. How unusual. After checking the calendar, she realized that it was Sunday.

How nice of them to let her sleep in. Even if she would have preferred to go out with them.

She heard footsteps outside the door and seconds later Ruby tried to sneak into the room. She must have expected Weiss to still be asleep.

"Hey Weiss, I got you something for breakfast." She said when she saw that her partner was up. And indeed, she was carrying pancakes with her.

"How come you didn't wake me up?"

"I couldn't bring myself to do it. You were sleeping very peacefully."

Ruby sat down next to Weiss gave her a small sandwich.

"I would have gotten you more, but you hardly ever eat anything in the mornings and I hate to waste food… I could get you some more if you want. Or you could have mine."

"It's plenty." She probably would have preferred just a cup of coffee for breakfast, but if Ruby made the effort to bring her something it was common courtesy to eat it.

Ruby seemed distracted. She wasn't touching her breakfast. She just sat there, watching Weiss eat.

"What's wrong?"

Ruby yelped at the question, turning away. "It's nothing. I was just … Well you see, I'm the team leader and it's my job to make sure my team is in peak condition, so I was just wondering if there is something on your mind that you'd maybe like to talk about." She took a deep breath after finishing.

"I'm perfectly fine, Ruby. Why would you ask me something like that?"

"Because when I checked on you earlier, you were crying in your sleep."

Was that why Ruby hadn't woken her? Why she was being so nice, bringing her breakfast? Because of a show of weakness like that? Weiss Schnee couldn't have her team leader think of her as weak.

"So what? I must have had a sad dream. People have those. There is absolutely no reason for you to be concerned." Her voice was confident, but Ruby didn't look convinced.

"Well, I'm here for you. If you ever feel like talking, please do. Not just because you're my teammate, but because you're my friend."

Ruby extended a hand to Weiss.

Weiss took it uncertainly. What was she planning?

Ruby's eyes betrayed nothing but it was clearly not just a random gesture.

"I know you hate this part, but you'll have to bear with me."

Ruby wrapped her hands around Weiss, hugging her for all of five seconds.

She had learned that was the most the girl would permit, so she got ready to break it off, but was pleasantly surprised to find Weiss' arms wrapped around her tightly.

"I'm sorry Ruby, I don't know what's wrong with me today. My arms seem to have a mind of their own.

How dare Ruby attack her like that? Why did she have to exploit her only weakness?

It was the touch of another person, something that Weiss thought she would never get used to.

Just touching Ruby's hand when she extended it to her felt like a jolt of electricity went through her body. The hug was something entirely different. Something that caused her heart to skip a beat.

"That's okay, you don't have to apologize. It's only natural to need a hug sometimes." Ruby said softly.

Weiss put her head down in the area between Ruby's neck and shoulder and cried silently.

Ruby could feel the wetness going through her clothes, but didn't complain.

Weiss needed this.

"I'm sorry for being like this," Weiss said in between sobs. "I don't know why, I don't know… anything."

"It's okay. We don't have to talk about this. We don't have to tell anyone, so just let it happen."

"I always managed to keep myself under control, always told myself that I don't need anyone, always thought that I could make it on my own. Now I realize how stupid I was being. How weak I am because of it."

"Nope."

Weiss looked up at Ruby to see a confident smile on her face.

"What?"

"I said "nope". It's what people around here seem to always need to hear. You aren't stupid for wanting to do things on your own. You aren't stupid for thinking that you don't need anyone else, because you don't."

"Look at me right now. Do I look like I could do anything on my own in the state I'm in?"

"Well that doesn't count, does it? After all, I'm the reason you're like this. If I hadn't done what I did, you wouldn't have broken down."

"I don't understand."

"I could have left you alone and you would have been fine. Not just today, but after that too. You wouldn't let something like this get in the way if it would endanger us or the mission."

"So why did you do it?"

"Because you're my friend you dunce." Weiss almost found it funny that Ruby would use that word about her. "What kind of leader, no actually, what kind of person would I be if I knew my friend was suffering and did nothing for her?"

Weiss couldn't keep her tears from flowing out, so she buried her face back into her partner's shoulder.

And she cried. And cried.

She cried for her parents, who never really got to know her, for her sister, who never listened to her, but mostly she cried for herself.

She cried for all the days and nights she had spent alone, trying to convince herself that she didn't need anyone.

She cried for all the times she had pushed people away.

All the people she thought were just after her money and fame.

All the people who could have been her friends, who could have saved her from her loneliness.

Finally, she cried just for the sake of crying. She hadn't done it since she was a little girl and she had forgotten how good it felt to be able to do it.

Ruby never complained, even though Weiss didn't remember her ever having to stay in the same spot for this long. She must have been just as tired as Weiss, but she stayed there for as long as her friend needed her.

"Thank you," Weiss managed to say. "I feel better, I think."

Sure, she felt like a complete mess, but deep inside, she her entire being felt a little lighter, like she had cried away something that was holding her back.

"That's good. You should know I'm always here for you. No matter what."

"Thank you." She said again and she meant it even more.

"Next time you feel like this, you come to me, otherwise I will consider your promise to be the best teammate broken."

"I think I can manage that," Weiss said and lifted her head, feeling strong enough to let go of Ruby.

"And if I'm not there, there's always Yang and Blake. We're all here for you and we all think of you as a friend. Don't be afraid of looking weak and know that everyone needs a shoulder to cry on sometimes."


	5. Chapter 8 - A friendly Weiss

"I am never drinking again," Weiss moaned as she slowly got out of bed.

"You didn't even drink," Yang said, while brushing her hair. "How do you have a hangover?"

"I don't. The soul-crushing regret of the way I acted yesterday is more painful than anything alcohol could induce. How do you not have a hangover?"

"Aura."

"Right."

"Well, good morning to you two," Ruby's chipper voice was heard from over Weiss' head. "How are my three favorite teammates feeling today?"

"Horrible," Weiss.

"Great." Yang.

"Fine." Blake.

"What's wrong Blake," Ruby said the concern for her teammate showing on her face.

"Nothing. Shouldn't you be more concerned for Weiss? She's the one who's feeling horrible."

"No way. Fine is far worse than horrible. It means there's something actually wrong that you don't want to talk about. Weiss is just being Weiss. You are being you, but you shouldn't be being you because you being you is a problem for all of us. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't be you, I'm saying you should be you, but you should also be a you that trusts your teammates enough to tell them what's wrong."

"Ruby I have no idea what you just said. I'm going to go ahead." Blake gathered up the things she would need for the day and left the room.

Ruby was left looking at the door. "I was joking."

"Maybe you hit a nerve," Weiss said helpfully.

"And all that stuff you said afterwards certainly helped." Yang continued.

"I know. Now she's going to think about my words all day and arrive at the conclusion that she needs to believe in her team more. I'm a genius." Ruby raised her hands in the air in celebration.

"I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen," Weiss said.

"I know. I'm a failure." She put her hands down.

"It's okay, sis. Now that you've struck the first blow it'll be that much easier to get her to tell me what's on her mind." Yang had a confident smile on as she left the room.

"Do you think she can do it?"

"Probably," Weiss said. "It is Yang after all. She even managed to hold a conversation with me without trying to punch me for a few hours. Something like this is a piece of cake."

* * *

Yang was very worried.

She promised her sister she would find out what was troubling Blake, but she had no idea how.

The first part of her duty would be finding her partner, but even that may prove to be too much. Yang recently learned that when Blake doesn't want to be found, there is nothing that can be done.

"Hey, Yang," she heard a greeting and when she turned around, she was face-to-face with Nora.

"Hey Nora."

"You look like you're thinking pretty hard about something. You passed right by me without even saying hello."

"Yeah, sorry. I have a thing I promised to do, but I have no idea how to actually do it."

"Oh? Well then you just have to make Ren do it for you. That's my philosophy in life and it has yet to lead me astray." What a very Nora answer.

"I don't think Ren would be able to help," Yang said. "It's about Blake. We're trying to make her feel like she can trust her team more, but I have no idea how to actually do that."

"Oh. Well then why don't you force her to trust you?"

"What do you mean?"

"If she is ever in a situation where she has to choose between trusting you or something bad, she's going to trust you, right? Just make a situation like that happen and you're golden."

"I don't think that would inspire a lot of trust," Yang said, reminding herself what happened the last time she took Nora's advice. In the back of her mind, she could still hear the lecture Goodwitch gave her after that one, as if it was still going on.

"Well then, why don't you put your trust in her? They say that trust is mutual, so if you trust her, she'd automatically trust you."

"You might actually be onto something here," Yang said.

Nora beamed. "Really? Wow, I don't think anyone's ever reacted positively to my advice."

"Well, this time it isn't something that might get me expelled, so it has to be better than last time."

"Oh yeah, I remember telling you to hold professor Goodwitch's cape over her head while we raided the kitchen."

"Nora, we will never speak of such dark times again. She had me restore the entire supply of honey you stole. You have no idea of the things I had to do."

"If I had known that you suffered so much for it, I wouldn't have eaten it all at once."

Yang stopped in her tracks. "That was the entire supply of honey for all of Beacon for the next month."

"I know. I almost didn't go for a midnight snack after that." Yang wondered exactly what kind of gluttony demon lived under this girl's skin.

"Like I said, we're never talking about it again."

"Roger that!"

"Thanks for the advice. I'll tell you if it works."

Yang and Nora parted ways and Yang now had two things to worry about. How was she going to find Blake and how was she going to show her trust?

* * *

In the meantime, Ruby and Weiss were eating a late breakfast right before classes.

"You know, I learned a lot about you yesterday," Ruby said.

Weiss groaned. "Don't remind me."

"Oh, come on, it wasn't all bad. You obviously can't handle being anywhere near liquor, but you can get along with my sister if you want to. I didn't think you had it in you."

"Getting along with people is easy if you go with the flow. That's why I was in that state. Alcohol relaxes people's inhibitions. Being around people with low inhibitions makes me lower my guard. That leads me to opening up some more and getting hit with another dose of irresponsibility. As you have already seen, it's a slippery slope."

"So that happens anytime you're near someone under the influence?"

"Yes and no. It depends on the mood. If it's in the middle of a fight, then it's highly unlikely. I have a reasonable amount of control over it."

"So it's a skill then?"

"You could say that. If I had to say it like a skill you could use, I'd say it's easy for me to get into other people's heads."

"Hmm," Ruby said. She continued to eat breakfast while thinking about it. "You said you could use it to copy the influence of alcohol. What about other psychoactive substances?"

"Well, in theory, I should be able to copy nearly anything, as even drugs that affect your body do so by telling the brain what to do. Although this isn't really something I've ever used in a fight. It's completely useless against Grimm and I haven't come across a human opponent against whom it could work effectively."

Ruby arranged two of the desserts she had in a small tower. "Two things. Why do you know this much about drugs and why would you develop such an elaborate ability if not for combat."

"Ruby, I'm a spoiled, rich teenager. Do you really think I haven't tried some harmless drugs? Especially ones that would make my studies easier."

Ruby lifted an eyebrow. "Do they work?"

"It depends on a lot of things, but yeah, they mostly do."

"I hope we don't have to rely on something like that, but you should probably get us some. We may end up having to use something like that to save our lives. Thanks, I wouldn't have thought of this if not for you." She devoured two of her sweets in quick succession.

Weiss never expected Ruby to respond in such a way. She expected to be chastised not praised for doing one if the things she was most ashamed of. "You'd use something like that?"

"My mother was a huntress, you know," Ruby said. "And by was I don't mean she retired or quit or anything like that. Our profession is extremely dangerous. We may end up in a situation where our lives are in danger. At a time like that, I don't care what we have to do as long as we survive. If I have to use artificial help to get us through the day, I'll do it." For the first time, Weiss noticed how much Ruby's eyes looked like steel.

"I get it. I'll get in touch with a few people. Most of the things should be available legally to us, as huntresses, but I can think of a few extreme things that wouldn't be recommended even for us."

"Good. Now, what about my second question?"

"Second question?" Weiss wondered before remembering. "Oh, right, why I learned to get inside people's heads."

"Yes."

"Well, it's not like I wanted to, it just sort of happened. When you grow up the way I did, you learn that making everyone around you happy makes your life easier. Of course, not everyone likes the same things, so I had to start paying attention and soon I was able to learn everything about a person by spending a few minutes with them."

Ruby blinked slowly. "Oh really? What kind of person did you think I was when we first met?"

"Clumsy, stupid, lighthearted and loyal. In other words, a child." Weiss hesitated before saying the rest of her thoughts. "There was something more to you than that, though. You looked lonely and afraid. Just like me."

"You're projecting." Ruby said without hesitation.

"Am I? Your mother is dead, leaving you with the legacy of a great huntress that you feel like you have to live up to. Your sister has arguably given up on living a meaningful life. Not to mention that you are at the same level of skill as the rest of us, in spite of being two years younger, which leads me to believe you had no other distractions to occupy your time other than training. The way I see it, your uncle took pity on you and decided to give you a purpose so you wouldn't end up slitting your wrists before you turned sixteen."

It took a second for Ruby to take in everything that Weiss had said. When she did, tears started streaming down her face.

"Why would you say any of that," she asked. "Do you hate me that much?"

Ruby ran out of the cafeteria in a burst of rose petals.

The stares of all of her classmates were painful for Weiss, so she got up to follow her leader out. Unfortunately, Jaune stood in her way.

"What was all that about?"

"You didn't hear?"

"I heard. I'm just wondering what made you say something like that."

"You really don't know me very well, do you? This is the way I normally act."

"I've never seen you be this mean to someone just for the sake of being mean. What's going on, Weiss?"

"I just wanted to make sure I'm not losing my touch," she said and walked away.

In the distance she heard gunshots. Ruby was probably going on another Grimm slaughtering rampage. Well, if it helped her, then it was fine.

* * *

In the meantime, classes started and Yang finally had a chance to talk to Blake.

"Hey there, missed you at breakfast."

"I thought about not going to class too, but in the end I guess I don't want to stand out too much after what happened."

"That would probably be for the best."

"Yeah. I can't help thinking that Ozpin is starting to suspect something."

"Did he say anything?"

"No, he let me off with a warning."

"Did you say anything to him?"

"I wanted to. I just didn't know how to do it without revealing too much."

"Why not tell him everything the way you told us? I'm sure he would have heard you out."

"I was part of a terrorist organization," Blake whispered, looking around to make sure no one heard her. "He is a huntsman. Do you think he could ignore something like that?"

"I guess not." Yang lay face down on her desk in defeat. "Anyway, I'm going to find out what you're so worried about that it made you run away from the dorm."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"By not asking you."

"Are you trying to use reverse psychology on me?"

"What's that?"

"Never mind. So, how will not asking me help you find out?"

"I'm not going to ask you until you trust me enough to tell me." Yang said, beaming with pride for having come up with something so brilliant. Well technically Nora came up with it, but she perfected the plan.

"Good luck with that," Blake said and went back to looking at their lecture.

It was probably going to take a while.

* * *

After classes, Yang cornered Weiss before she could leave the room. "Hey, Weiss, what's up? Do you know why Ruby's missing class? I'm kind of worried about her."

"I do." Oh, great, she was going to be difficult about it.

"Could you share?"

"I said some things to her, so she ran off crying," Weiss said her expression never changing.

"Why would you do something that could result in me kicking your face in?"

"I felt like it."

Yang didn't consider that a good enough reason. She grabbed Weiss by the collar and lifted her against the wall. "Just what did you say to her?"

"I'm sure you don't want to know. After all, if I said something similar to you, you'd probably commit suicide."

"What the hell?"

"I'm really good at hurting people. It's a defense mechanism." Her voice was still completely calm and even. What the hell was wrong with this girl?

"I'll kill you!" were the last words Yang managed to get out before she started punching Weiss. She didn't stop punching until Port managed to force her off.

* * *

Ruby found that nothing was quite as good for stress relief as tearing through hordes of Grimm.

It was good training, even if she wasn't able to do it as often since she joined Beacon. It emptied her head of annoying thoughts and that was something she sorely needed at the moment.

As such she thought about nothing as she ran through Forever Fall, killing any Grimm she noticed.

 _Stupid Weiss. What does she know? She's just some spoiled rich girl._

Ruby told her brain to shut up and concentrate on finding Grimm.

Soon after that she found a decent-size Ursa and proceeded to wear it down with a couple of well-placed strikes to the legs before going in for the kill.

That was something she was good at. Something she could do very well. Maybe she wasn't the best leader, but at least she could kill monsters.

Those were the thoughts going through her head as she went in for the killing blow. They must have been too distracting, as she didn't even notice that the Ursa lifted its paw to block her scythe. The blade went in smoothly, cutting about halfway through.

By the time she realized how huge of a mistake she had made, the Ursa managed to grab her torso and leaned in to take a bite out of her face.

She didn't have time to think, so she did the first thing that popped into her head: fire Crescent Rose.

The shock of the recoil embedded the blade deeper into the Ursa's arm, causing it to snarl in pain and tighten its grip on Ruby. The young huntress quickly loaded another bullet and fired again. The grip around her tightened even more, but the other arm was almost cut off. She fired again and Crescent Rose finally cut free. She quickly cut the tendons of the arm that was holding her in place then brought the scythe around and decapitated the monster.

She sat down on the ground and took a deep breath, trying to calm her heart beating frantically in her chest.

What the hell was she doing?

Why was she out here, putting herself in needless danger? Who would lead her team if she died out here?

Why did she let what Weiss said get to her? She was supposed to be her team's leader. What kind of leader runs off at the slightest hint of trouble?

Ruby spent the time she needed to catch her breath thinking about what kind of punishment Weiss would hate the most.

* * *

"What was that all about," Blake asked when the crowd around Weiss had cleared up.

"I'll tell you later. I don't think my aura can take another beating."

"Your aura? It looked like you weren't even using it."

"I was. That girl is just too damn strong." Weiss felt the cut on her cheek. "It'll heal soon enough. Not even worth going to the infirmary for." She stood up.

"You really are something, you know that?" Blake said. "Yesterday you two were having fun together. Today she beats you up. It's like you have a talent of pissing people off."

"I do." Weis started walking towards the library, where she had planned on going before the whole incident with Yang.

Blake ran a little in order to catch up. "Aren't _you_ going to ask me why I ran away this morning?"

"I get the feeling you're going to tell me anyway."

"What gives you that idea?"

"Because you're talking about it."

True enough. "I get the feeling you're not in a very good mood."

"I just had my face repeatedly hit by a blunt object. The fact that said object was Yang's fist doesn't make it any better."

"Did she use only one fist?"

"Not helping."

"Well I'm pretty sure you deserved whatever you got, so I'm not trying to help you."

"Didn't you want me to listen to you about something?"

"Unrelated."

"Related because I don't feel like listening."

Blake caught Weiss' arm and pulled until she stopped walking. "What _did_ you do?"

"Like I said, I don't want you trying to beat me up too."

"I am a lot calmer than Yang, and I doubt she wanted to hurt you too badly anyway."

"Yeah, my face begs to differ."

"If she had used her gauntlets, you wouldn't have much of a face left."

Weiss realized that Blake might have a point, but still, "It's also possible she was so angry she forgot to use them." Sigh. "Anyway, what's on your mind?"

"About all those people on the docks yesterday. A lot of things don't make sense. White Fang working with humans. That Roman Torchwick guy. Needing that much dust. Out of the four of us, I think you're the most appropriate person to talk to about it."

Weiss was certainly curious about all of those inconsistencies. It would also be a nice distraction.

"Well, the amount of dust is certainly the most interesting part. Stealing that much makes no sense. The only things you could do with amounts this massive would be to power a city or build a weapon of mass destruction. I don't think even the White Fang have reached a point where they would start killing millions indiscriminately and they certainly aren't going to power a city, so, to summarize, I have no idea."

"Could they be trying to make your father's company lose money? Try to shut it down?"

"This amount of dust is too much for a single organization to use, but for the biggest supplier for the most valuable resource humanity has, it's only a drop in the sea. If they wanted to hurt the company, the only way I can think of is if they blew up the Schnee mines. No one's stupid enough to do that."

Blake looked away. "It's a good thing we stopped them."

"Agreed. You did a good thing. The White fang may not be that far gone, but they could get there. I'd rather they didn't have access to WMDs if they do."

"So that brings us back to square one." Blake said.

"I can't think of anything else, so yes. Good luck."

Weiss turned to leave, but the voice of her teammate stopped her. "Weiss."

"What?"

"What if they have are willing to go that far? Make the dust into bombs. Start killing people by the thousands."

"Pretty simple," Weiss said, turning around to face her teammate. "We're huntresses, you and I. It's our duty to stop them. In fact, it would be best if we did so before they start bombing cities. What we need right now is someone who used to be a part of them. Someone who can think like them. Someone who can find them before it's too late. Can you think of someone like that?"

"What's with the pronoun game? We both know you're talking about me."

"I know that. You know that. The curious students that could be listening in on us don't know that. So, can you think of anyone?"

Blake realized that she needed to be a lot more careful. Anyone could have walked into the library and overheard them. "Yeah, I think I know someone like that."

"Good. Get in touch with me if that person figures it out." Weiss said and left. The only reason why she wanted to be in the library was because it was usually empty, but with Blake there she knew she wasn't going to get any time to herself.

* * *

Ruby knew that she was going to have to face Goodwitch's wrath when she came back, but she never expected her to be angry enough to bring her to Ozpin.

"Glynda tells me you went on an unauthorized trip outside of school. During school hours, I might add."

"I did." she admitted.

"Aren't you going to explain yourself?"

Ruby wondered if she should tell him. He had given her some useful advice before. "One of my teammates said something hurtful to me."

"Are you and Miss Schnee still having problems?"

"I never said it was Weiss." Ruby said. "Although I guess I don't have to. She's the only one you know I'm having problems with."

"What kind of problems?" Ozpin looked straight into her eyes with intensity that Ruby felt wasn't quite necessary for the situation.

"I don't really understand her. Two weeks ago she was crying on my shoulder. Now I feel like she hates me. She was really mean and I have no idea why."

Ozpin looked troubled by the news. "People are very complex Ruby. Understanding each other when we are all trying is extremely hard. When you run away from the person you want to understand it's even harder."

Ruby opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced by Ozpin lifting his hand.

"I know I can't fault you for being overwhelmed by a display of hostility from someone you consider a friend, however you should know better than to try to run away from your problems. Talk to Weiss. Punish her if you must, but try to understand her all the same."

"It's not that simple. I feel like I may step on another landmine if I try to get through to her. Maybe giving her some time would be best."

"Maybe. Would you like to look through my files on her? It could give you some much needed insight into her character." Ozpin took out his scroll.

"That's fine. I don't want to invade her privacy." Ruby was given files on all of her teammates back when the teams were formed. Of course, they were heavily redacted in order to protect them and she was fine with that.

"As a leader, you may not have a choice. I normally disclose these with team leaders on their final year, but if you need them now I could bend the rules."

Ruby couldn't say a word. Not because of what Ozpin was offering, but because of the things she could see floating over his desk in holographic images, plainly in her view.

All of her teams files. What stood out to her in particular, however was a single line on Blake's. One that had been redacted on her copy.

 _Former White Fang operative. Cut ties with them after helping with the robbery of a Schnee dust transportation train._

Ruby looked away before she could see anything else she didn't want to know.

"Do all the teachers have access to that?"

"I am the only person in all of Remnant who has these versions. I tell people what they need to know and keep everything else to myself."

Ozpin gave her an even more serious look. "Do you need to know, Ruby? Think about it. You could avoid a lot of needless conflict if you say yes."

He was probably right. If she had known about Blake's past things would have probably gone a lot better.

She chanced another look. This time at Yang's. Surely there wasn't something she didn't know about her sister.

 _Holds influence over Hei Xiong, local business owner and information broker._

That could have been worse. Still, it was something she hadn't known about her sister. Something she shouldn't know. Maybe it would be for the best not to delve too deeply into other people's secrets.

"No thank you."

"How very wise of you," Ozpin said.

"What do you mean? I thought you would be disappointed."

"Did you now? Why would I be? If you had chosen to take it you could have avoided some conflict between your teammates, but it is precisely that conflict that makes you grow as a group and as people. I am not disappointed, I am proud of you for not taking the easy way out."

Way to sound overly dramatic. "…Thanks I guess."

"You're welcome."

"Will that be all?" Ruby was looking forward to getting out of Ozpin's office, as she was getting more and more uncomfortable by the minute.

"Actually, I have something else I would like to speak to you about."

"What is it?"

"Team CFVY was the one I chose to plan the dance, but it looks like their mission will have to go on for longer than expected. Can you think of someone who could fill in for them?"

Ruby grinned at him. He was such a thoughtful professor. "Oh, I know someone who would love to do it."

* * *

Why was Port being so uptight? Yang was sure she didn't need to go see Ozpin just because she got in a fight.

He indicated for her to sit down on one of the sofas in front, as there was already someone in there.

A few minutes later, Ruby came out.

"Ruby! Where have you been all day? I was so worried." She said, rising to her feet. Port gave her a stern look, but didn't say anything.

"Why does it look a lot like you have a teacher escorting you to see Ozpin?"

"I beat up Weiss. Were you talking to him about her? I don't know what she said to you, but I think we should solve this within the team." Yang wondered if Ruby would be angry with her. She was defending someone who was mean to her after all, but she couldn't imagine not having Weiss around. Sure she was a bitch, but she could also be nice in her own weird, twisted way.

"I didn't talk to him about kicking Weiss off the team." Ruby said.

"That's a relief. So what was it about?"

"Your punishment," she said, smiling. Then she poked her head into the office and said, "Yang will help too."

"Punishment? For what? What am I helping with?"

"For fighting with my dear partner," Ruby said. "Now go talk to him."

"I didn't fight," Yang complained. "Fighting would require opposition."

Ruby, who was about to go off into one of her semblance-powered runs, froze in place. "She didn't fight back?"

Yang was confused as to why something like that was relevant. "No, she didn't. I even managed to punch through her aura with my bare hands."

"Weird," Ruby said under her breath and turned around, preparing to shoot off to a different part of Beacon.

"Why are you surprised? I'm strong enough to do that to nearly anyone."

"Because Weiss isn't anyone. There are a lot of things about her I don't understand, but I do know that she would fight back if attacked. Stopping your fist with a glyph is as natural as breathing to her."

With those words, Ruby shot off into the distance, while Yang had no choice but to go into Ozpin's office.

* * *

Blake was done getting the things she needed from the library, so she headed back to the dorm. On the way, a red blur passed her.

She stopped walking and waited for Ruby to stop and then come back.

"Hey Blake, any idea where I can find Weiss?" She asked.

"She was here until a few minutes ago. She's probably off sulking somewhere out of sight."

Ruby tilted her head with a questioning expression. "What makes you say that?

Blake realized that Ruby probably hadn't seen Weiss since whatever happened, so she might not know what was going on.

"She's been racking herself with guilt all day. Whatever she did to you, I'm sure she regrets it.

"Well she could have not done it," Ruby mumbled under her breath before walking away with her shoulders slumped and head down.

Blake sighed and continued walking to the dorm. Why did she have to be in a team with a bunch of weirdos?

She took a very special book out from her hiding place and, thinking that she was probably going to get a little time to herself, but was interrupted by Yang's footsteps getting closer to the door.

While she was hiding her book, she thought there was something odd about the way Yang was walking. It almost sounded like she was dragging her feet.

The door opening confirmed her suspicions. Yang walked forward slowly, and collapsed in Weiss' bed.

"What happened to you?" Blake asked.

"My sister is a demon." She said in a low voice.

"Do I need to get my weapon or are you exaggerating?" Considering she was speaking to Yang, it was most likely to be the second one, but just in case it was good to ask.

"She wants me to organize a dance."

Wasn't this exactly the kind of thing Yang would be really excited for? "How does that make her a demon?"

"Because I wasn't finished. She wants me to organize a dance…" Blake waited patiently for her to finish. "…with Weiss."

"Oh. And you hate Weiss right now." It was starting to make sense. Ruby really was a devious little thing.

"Hate is such a strong word."

"Her face looks like it went through a blender."

Yang took a few seconds to process that. "That's just the way we communicate," she said with a smile.

"You need to get better at communicating," Blake said coldly.

"She's the problem!"

"How is that an excuse? If anything it means you're the one who has to be better because it would be harder for her." Blake was starting to enjoy tormenting her partner.

Yang didn't say anything in response. She jumped into her own bed, landing on her back.

"I thought I was supposed to be the gloomy one," Blake said, thinking about how her teammates were a little too unenthusiastic lately. If they kept that up, she wasn't going to be able to leech off their energy as much and would have even less of it than she did now. Maybe she should try to patch things up between them.

* * *

It was almost evening when Ruby finally found Weiss. It wasn't easy. She looked through far too much of the school to just find her hugging her knees in the corner of a classroom.

When Weiss looked at her, Ruby couldn't help averting her eyes. The entire left side of her partner's face was blue and she had a nasty gash on her cheek. Her left eye seemed to be swollen shut. It was not pretty to look at.

"Hey Ruby," Weiss said in a quiet, hoarse voice.

"Hi." Ruby was determined that she was still going to be angry with her, even if she felt sorry for what Yang did. Even if Weiss was feeling guilty about it.

"About what I said earlier…"

"Are you going to apologize? You don't need to. No apology could make up for something like that."

"I'm not sorry for what I said." Weiss said, lifting her head.

"Then what do you want?" Ruby had to remind herself yet again that she was angry with Weiss.

"I wanted to say that I am who I am. Don't mistake me for whatever you want me to be. I'm a mean and spiteful person."

"Are you going somewhere with this or are you just running your mouth?" On that day, Ruby Rose learned the valuable lesson that pretending to be angry is easier when the person you're pretending to be angry with is pissing you off.

"I was angry."

"Excuse me?" It was the only thing Ruby could say. What was Weiss talking about? In what universe did she have the right to be angry?

"I got angry at you when you said what you did. I got angry at you for thinking that you can pretend to be a normal, well-adjusted person. I got angry at you because I hate it how you can just lie to everyone around you, including yourself, about the kind of person you are. And I got jealous of you for being able to keep that lie going." Weiss said and looked down again.

Ruby was at a loss for words.

Weiss took a deep breath. "This is the kind of person I am, Ruby. If I don't like something I'll tear it down. If I think you're lying to me, I'll make you admit the truth. If you hurt me, I'll return it tenfold. If you end up hating me because of it, that's okay. But when talking to me, talk as yourself. Don't hide from me and I won't hide from you. That's the only kind of relationship I have to offer."

"I don't think that's friendship you're talking about, Weiss," Ruby said when she found her voice.

"I don't care for things as meaningless as friends," Weiss said. "What I need is someone I can trust. Someone I know will pull through for me. If you can be that for me, I can be the same for you. That's all there is to it. Nothing as flashy as friendship. You don't have to like me. You don't have to enjoy being in the same room with me. However, if you can be someone I can trust, then that would make me happy."

With that she collected herself and left the room.

 _Weiss really is amazing_ , Ruby thought.


	6. Ch 9 - Ruby's plots and machinations

Ruby wondered what she was going to do today. Blake was nowhere to be found and Yang and Weiss were busy planning the dance.

And so, Ruby was left alone. She took out her scroll and looked through her checklist for the day.

 _Bring Weiss her coffee to show her you forgive her._

 _Find Blake and get her to share what's going on._

 _Make sure Yang doesn't slack off with the dance stuff._

 _Get Jaune to quit slacking off on his sparring with Pyrrha. (As requested by her.)_

 _Get Blake a tuna sandwich and see if you can get her to talk. (Yes, this is a bribe.)_

 _Train with Crescent Rose._

 _Find Sun and convince him to find out what's up with Blake._

There was more Blake than usual. Well, it was to be expected with everything that happened.

She decided to start off with the first Blake thing, as doing them all at once would raise unnecessary suspicion. She found her teammate, unsurprisingly, in the library. What was surprising was that she wasn't engrossed in a novel, but was looking at maps, history books and her own notes.

"Whatcha doin," Ruby announced her presence from behind Blake.

"Nya~~~" was the sound she heard when her teammate jumped high enough to nearly hit the ceiling. A clone looked at Ruby curiously from the chair Blake had been sitting on.

The time it took Blake to crash back down gave Ruby time to study the things she had been working on.

A map of Vale. Dozens of locations circled. News articles on dust robberies. Maps of the surroundings of Vale. Hunter notes on Grimm activity in certain areas. Blake's own notes tying everything together.

Of course, she didn't actually manage to read them before Blake came crashing down and she had to face her.

Blake took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. "Ruby, please don't ever do that again. We already have one white-haired teammate. You don't need a second."

"What is all of this?"

"Work," Blake said.

"It's not work I assigned to you and it definitely isn't something a teacher told you to do. So in short it isn't work."

"It is. Just not school work."

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "If it isn't schoolwork, what is it?"

"It's not about the White Fang," Blake said. When she saw Ruby's stare of disbelief, she decided to drop the secrecy and introduce her to the team. "Well it is, but not the way you think. I'm trying to find them."

"Okay, not really helping your case here, but go on."

"It's not what you think. I want to stop them. What do you think they could be using all that dust for? They could be making bombs! I have to find them and stop them!" Ruby could tell that Blake was very passionate about this, but that really was no excuse to shout in the library.

"Calm down a little. Now, tell me what you've found out."

Blake took a deep breath and continued in a quieter voice. "Well, I found a lot of places they couldn't be." Blake took the map of Vale and started writing numbers on it, then writing the same numbers into her notes. "See, all of these places are bad hideouts because of various reasons. I've ruled out entire districts that way."

Ruby tried to figure it out, but the way her notes were organized made it nearly impossible.

"Okay, you need to come with me," She said and started gathering up all of the stuff on the table.

She then flew off and Blake followed, picking up the pages Ruby dropped along the way.

Soon they arrived at one of the many classrooms of Beacon.

"Because of the dance, I think I'll be able to get us a room. I'll have Ozpin restrict access so the door only opens for our scrolls. Now give me a second." She flew out again.

Blake was wondering what all of this was about. Why would she need a classroom?

Ruby returned carrying a box filled with differently colored cords. She put it down on one of the desks and pulled out a bag of thumbtacks.

"What?" Blake asked. She was too bewildered to say anything else.

"I saw this in a movie. You put the map in the center of the wall, then you put all your clues around it, and then connect everything with the strings." While she talked, Ruby put up the maps in different parts of the walls and then started studying Blake's notes, articles and, much to Blake's horror, tearing pages out of the books and putting them up.

"Don't you think someone will complain about the holes in the wall?" Blake asked, while watching Ruby start to connect everything.

"It can't be helped. I'll deal with Ozpin if I have to. We could just blame Yang and Weiss if we have to. I'll say they need to use the room for storage or something." Ruby felt a little guilty for lying. In truth, she planned on telling Ozpin everything simply because she had a sneaking suspicion that even if she didn't, he was going to find out anyway.

"Aaand done," Ruby said, tying off a string. "I can actually see what you were talking about now."

"What do you mean?" Was she unable to see it before?

"Take a look. Really look at it and you'll know what I'm talking about."

Blake looked at Ruby's creation, but she didn't really understand what her leader meant. Sure, there was all the information against the wall, but it wasn't different from her notes. If anything, it was harder to understand because of Ruby's strange method of presentation.

Her eyes having to dart from place to place in order to connect things was starting to make her head hurt, but she continued trying to read whatever the thing in front of her was.

Then it hit her. She was assaulted by a torrent of information flooding into her brain as she started looking at the big picture instead of the individual pieces.

Everything was right in front of her. All of the information she had was at her fingertips. She wouldn't have to flip through dozens of notes to find what she's looking for. She wouldn't need to re-write the things she messed up. She wouldn't even need to flip through multiple books to confirm or deny a theory.

Everything was right in front of her. Well, not everything. She realized how many things were missing and started making a mental list of things to get and the way to connect them when she noticed something.

"You even color coded it," she said. "Red string and tack is a dust robbery. Green is a safe zone. Blue is a low-priority zone, while yellow is a possible hideout."

"Yup. White are all the things I either didn't get or didn't know where to put." She giggled. "How ironic."

"Was that a jab at Weiss?"

"Not as much a jab, as it is a coincidence. A funny one." The look on Blake's face said she found the funniness debatable. "Anyway, I also grouped things according to region because I wanted to save string. I think I might need to bring more."

Blake jumped onto a desk and sat down, looking more carefully. Ruby snickered.

"What?" Blake asked in a distracted voice. She was still drinking everything in, trying to memorize everything about it.

"You looked just like a cat when you did that."

"Shut up. Also, you're right. I need more string."

"Don't play with it." Ruby said in a serious voice. Blake threw the nearest object she could reach at her.

"What, for all I know you could chase laser pointers too."

"Ruby, seriously, shut up."

"Well okay then." Ruby headed for the door. "I'll get Jaune to bring you more supplies when I go talk to him."

"Yeah," Blake said, clearly not listening.

"One last thing. This is important so listen to me this time."

Blake looked away from the diagrams and at Ruby. "Sorry."

"Don't forget to eat, sleep and shower. If you do your productivity will fall and you'll actually work less effectively than if you were to take the time to take care of yourself. I'll try to check up on you and get other people to do it too, but in the end, you're the one who needs keep yourself in check. Got it?"

"Yeah." Blake said and turned back to the wall full of delicious information.

Ruby thought about getting her to repeat what she said, but decided on not being a colossal nuisance. If Blake was going to have a problem with this, she would deal with it.

In any case, Ruby happily crossed an item off her list.

* * *

After getting the key to the room, so to speak, Ruby decided to do Jaune next, as the more time went on, the more likely it became that she would be able to catch Yang napping.

She found him in his dorm, reading a comic book.

"Okay Jaune, you're coming with me." She grabbed him by the collar and started dragging him.

"Leave me alone. I'm supposed to be taking a break right now." He complained.

"I have a job for you," Ruby said, hoping to get his attention.

"Let me guess. Totally-Not-Pyrrha told you that I've been neglecting my training lately and your job for me is going to be an elaborate setup to get me to get back to sparring with her."

Right on the mark, not that Ruby would let it show. "Why don't you want to spar with her? The two of you used to get along so well."

"Ruby, I appreciate your concern and all, but please just leave me alone."

"Nope."

"I'm noping your nope."

"I'm the only one who can control the power of the nope. Now seriously, spill the beans or I'll get Nora to ask you."

Jaune recoiled at the thought. Maybe threatening him with an interrogation by Nora was too much after all.

"You don't have to go that far." He said.

"Yeah, I do. I don't want to do this all day. Besides, I actually do have something for you to do, so can we get on with it?"

Jaune gave a melodramatic sigh. "It's about the tournament coming up. She's a champion. She should be training seriously, not wasting her time with someone like me."

That… was actually a good point. Still, Ruby couldn't give up now. "She isn't wasting her time. She's training one of the hunters with the biggest potential in Beacon."

"Do you really believe that?"

 _Nope._ "Of course. You wanna bet?"

"What are we betting and what are betting on?" Jaune asked suspiciously. He had already been swindled out of his money enough times to know to be very cautious about this sort of thing.

"I'm going to bet you that you can't get further than Pyrrha in the tournament." Ruby said, having come up with a genius plan.

"That's pretty obviously going to be my loss, though."

"No, it isn't. I'm betting for you to lose only because I don't want you to throw a match in order to win a bet. This way you actually have the motivation to win."

"Yeah, but motivation isn't going to carry me past where even Pyrrha can get. You're obviously trying to set me up to lose." _Dammit, Yang, he used to be a lot dumber._

"Would I really do something like that? Come on, I'm trying to tell you that you should believe in yourself more. You're the guy Pyrrha Nikos, THE Pyrrha Nikos chose to turn into a warrior and you think she's better off training with someone else?" She wondered if she wasn't overdoing it a little, but Jaune was eating it all up. "Besides, what fun would a bet be if I couldn't lose? That's not a bet at all. It's extortion. Do you really think I'd do something like that?" She looked at him with her best puppy eyes after that and she knew that any doubt was gone from his mind.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I am being stupid. You know what, I'll take that bet. Bring it on, tournament. I'll see Pyrrha at the finals."

"Well, I guess that's that. Now, about that thing I need you to do…"

"We forgot to set the odds." Jaune interrupted her.

"I'm fine with whatever you choose," Ruby said. She really was. It's easy to be fine when there's no way you'll lose.

"Really? Anything goes?"

"Ask for anything dirty and Yang will murder you."

"I wasn't going to," Jaune said, blushing profusely. He was totally thinking about it.

"Anyway, I need you to get some a lot of string in different colors. Ask at the place they give us school supplies. They won't give me any more. Then get it to Blake."

"That's a lot easier than I expected."

"Just remember, when talking to them, you don't know me, you've never seen me, you don't know if I exist."

"Right. Oh, before you go, about yesterday. Are you okay?"

"Of course," she said. "Why wouldn't I be? What happened yesterday?" She sped off into the distance.

* * *

Jaune started for the school supplies place, but on the way, he saw Weiss and Yang arguing over something.

Concerned because of what happened yesterday, he tried listening in on them.

"I'm telling you, if we put the damn thing here, everyone even remotely tall passing through will have to bow their heads in order to pass. There are too many tall people at Beacon right now for that to be acceptable."

"And I'm telling you that the banner goes at the entrance. How else are people going to find it? We're supposed to proudly declare the party, not tuck our declaration in a corner somewhere."

Jaune decided that they would probably be fine, so he continued on with his mission.

The mission was surprisingly easy. The person at the counter asked him if this was for "that scythe girl's project" and he mistakenly said yes, but in the end, he still got the things he needed.

He then realized that he had no idea where Blake was and after thirty minutes of asking around he was ready to give up. He decided to wait in the library, as that was the one place he knew she would show up sooner or later.

His idea paid off minutes later, as he saw Blake rush into the library and start rummaging through old newspapers.

Jaune thought there was something odd about the way she was acting. He had never seen her this dedicated to anything. Whatever Ruby's project was, it must be really important.

"Hi, Blake," he said, but to his surprise he was completely ignored. Well, Blake was known to be a little antisocial, so he tried again.

"I'm busy." She said without looking up.

"Right," he said and waited patiently while she continued separating the newspapers she needed.

"What is it, Jaune? I'm trying to work here."

"Nothing, I can wait for you to do your thing first."

At that point Blake looked up. "What I'm doing could take weeks the way things are going." She noticed the box in his hands. "Right, Ruby said she'd get you to help."

"She just told me to give this to you. I have to get to training."

"Take these, go to the counter and ask for them to make copies." Blake gave him a pile of newspapers. "I've opened them at the right pages."

Jaune probably could have objected, but he decided not to make his life unnecessarily difficult and did what he was told.

While he was waiting, he wondered what team RWBY was doing, with what he overheard Yang and Weiss talking about and then this.

Blake occasionally stopped by, leaving piles of books with notes on which pages she needed copied.

Jaune entertained himself with a comic book while he waited.

About half an hour later, Blake was satisfied with what she got, so they left the library, Jaune helping her carry the mountain of paper she needed for some reason and the cardboard box of supplies.

"It's here," Blake said, standing in front of a classroom. "Leave the stuff in front of the door and go train."

"Aren't you going to show me what all of that was about," he asked.

"It's a surprise." Blake said in a tone that made it very clear he was not going to get anything out of her.

He just added what happened to the list of things he didn't want to understand and went to find Pyrrha.

* * *

Ruby was a little mad and a little proud that she hadn't been able to catch her sister napping while Weiss did all the work. It was a little uncharacteristic of her, but then again, maybe Yang understood that trying to get Weiss to do all the work wasn't such a great idea.

A party organized entirely by Weiss. Ruby shuddered at the though.

Just as she was about to leave in order to work on her next task, Yang spotted her.

"Hey, Ruby," she said in a light tone that did not promise anything pleasant "I need you to spike the punch."

"Do it yourself," Ruby said. She had no intention of getting herself dragged into her sister's schemes.

"Well I can't exactly sabotage a party I'm organizing."

"Then don't spike it."

"But if I don't it will be the lamest party to have ever had the indignity of calling itself a party." _Doesn't that contradict your earlier statement?_

"Yang, how could a party call itself anything?"

"You see, this is why I shouldn't have asked you. You don't know the basics of having fun. A party isn't just a gathering of people, it's a living breathing thing. The people who go there aren't just individuals anymore, they're a part of something bigger. The whole purpose of a party is to have fun and alcohol makes things more fun. It's your duty, as a part of the big picture, to spike the damn punch and do what your big sister tells you."

"You started off really well, but you lost me at the end. Do it yourself or don't do it at all. Don't make your little sister do your dirty work for you."

"I can't do it myself. Weiss said that if I did anything she'd skewer me on her rapier, roast me over a slow fire and feed me to the guests as a special Vale delicacy."

Ruby turned to Weiss. "You said that?"

"I have to protect the party. And myself. Mostly myself."

Ah, Weiss' contact high thing. Ruby had actually forgotten all about it after Weiss started being mean. Now it made perfect sense.

"I don't think your rapier's long enough, though. Could probably use Crescent Rose's shaft if we have to."

"You're supposed to help me," Yang said in an outraged voice.

Ruby smiled at her sister's misfortune, betrayed by the one she trusted most. Then the smile faded. "Seriously, though, don't do it. I don't want to have to hold her hair all night while she vomits."

"It's her choice if she wants to drink," Yang said. Her memories from that time she'd gotten drunk "with" Weiss must be pretty hazy.

"No, it isn't, Yang. Anytime she's around someone that's been drinking, she gets drunk as well. She told us this, if you'd bothered to listen you would know."

"That's not everything," Weiss said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"What do you mean?"

"That night, before the docks was a mistake. I should have known better than to let myself get drunk." Yang looked like she understood something, but Ruby had no idea what was going on.

"Weiss, what are you talking about?"

"Drinking, Ruby. Drinking. I shouldn't drink." Weiss turned away from them, as if trying to hide her face. "It's … bad for me. I lose focus. Make mistakes. Remind myself of things I'd rather forget. End up doing more things I want to forget."

Was this because of what she promised yesterday? That she wouldn't hide anything?

Before Ruby had a chance to, Yang moved closer to Weiss and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I understand. I promise I won't do anything. I'll make sure no one else does either."

"What do you understand," Ruby finally asked. She sure as hell didn't understand what was going on.

"I shouldn't drink. Ever. I messed up really bad that night at the docks." For some reason she was almost in tears. She put her hand over Yang's, gripping it as if her life depended on it. Her eyes pleaded with her to explain.

"She's an alcoholic," Yang said. "I used to know a few people like her back in Signal. When Blake revealed what she did, it must have hit her pretty hard if she relapsed. How long?"

"The last time I drank alcohol was the day before I decided to go to Beacon," Weiss answered. "Before then I needed a drink before noon and was plastered by nighttime. I can think of plenty of excuses for it, but I don't think either of you want to hear them. I don't know how or why it got that far, but I realized it had to stop, so I did. That's it. Then I thought Blake betrayed us and I... I thought that maybe my head going blank wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

Ruby was slowly starting to understand. Before their conversation yesterday had taken an unfortunate turn, they had been talking about drugs. Maybe Ruby should have paid more attention to that, instead of getting angry over an ego trip.

Yang, on the other hand, looked incredibly guilty.

"Don't blame yourself," Weiss said. "You couldn't have known about any of that."

"Yeah, but if I was a little less insistent, getting you to come along, maybe you wouldn't have."

"Doesn't matter. If I wanted to resist it, I could have. It was fun. A lot of fun. So much fun I'm afraid I'll end up breaking my resolution again, and this time I may not stop."

Ruby walked forward and put a hand on her unoccupied shoulder.

"Weiss, you aren't a strong person. Everyone who's met you knows that," Ruby said carefully. "You lack the resolve needed to tackle a problem like this on your own. If you become addicted again, it would impact this team severely and I can't have that. So I'm giving you an order. You're to never let yourself become intoxicated again. If you do, I'm kicking you out."

"Ruby," Yang said the name very, very loudly. "What the hell are you talking about? She needs help, not an ultimatum. How can you say something so heartless?"

"Yang, this is between me and her. Don't butt in."

"The hell I won't. She's under enough pressure without you adding to it."

"Ruby's right." Weiss said. "She's giving me a reason not to get drunk. Making me choose between the effect alcohol has on me and you guys. It's a really easy choice, if you ask me." Weiss looked up, as if any care she had in the world was gone. "Your sister is very kind."

Ruby felt her cheeks blushing slightly. When was the last time Weiss complimented her?

Yang looked between her two teammates, trying to decide if it was okay to leave things as they were. "I have no idea what just happened and I probably don't want to find out," she said and left.

"So, you wanna talk about it," Ruby asked, already knowing the answer.

"Not much to talk about. Stressful childhood, yadda yadda yadda, abusive father, yadda yadda yadda, and I guess easy access to alcohol from a young age plays a part. Let's not make a big deal out of it. It's a perfectly ordinary situation."

Ruby could tell this wasn't Weiss acting tough, she was just being herself, exactly as promised. To her, something like that didn't matter anymore now that her current problem had been resolved.

"So you're alright?"

"Perfectly fine." She said, making a little twirl in her dress. "Don't worry about me too much. Like you said, I'm weak, so if I have any worries, I'll come running to you."

"You're happy," Ruby observed. It was plain to see the gigantic smile on her face.

"Of course I'm happy. I no longer have to worry about addiction thanks to you. So thank you."

She smiled sweetly. Weiss Schnee, the Ice Queen, among other, more insulting nicknames, smiled in a way that would be described as sweet. Weird.

"You're welcome," Ruby said, remembering that Weiss was probably waiting for a response.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, I guess I've got to get back to work. See you around, Ruby. Save me a dance if we ever get this thing ready."

She went out of the room in better spirits than Ruby had ever seen her.

* * *

Ruby sure overdid it. Getting Jaune to train enough to survive against Grimm was one thing, but fighting against other hunters was far too much for him.

"Again," Pyrrha barked out and Jaune, whose enthusiasm was just increasing more and more, attacked her again.

She reminded herself not to hold back. Not as much as she usually did anyway.

She stepped out of the way of her partner's swing and hit him lightly on the back with the shaft of her spear.

"Again."

Jaune didn't falter and attacked again. The result was the same as all of his other attacks in the two hours that they had been training.

"Jaune, focus. You can't expect your opponent to stay still and take the hit the way Grimm do. Expect me to dodge and act accordingly."

"I know," he said. "You're just too fast for me."

"There are going to be plenty of people faster than me at the tournament. If you can't keep up with me, what hope do you have against them?"

"Saying that isn't going to magically make me faster," he complained.

"No, training is. Now go again."

"You're the one who stopped to complain," he mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he said and quickly attacked.

* * *

In the end, all Ruby could really do next was get Blake a sandwich and check up on her.

She found her on top of a pile of desks, using them to reach higher in order to add some more things to the monstrosity that was already covering half the wall.

"Whoa," Ruby said. It was a suitable reaction.

"Yeah," Blake said. "I think I'm starting to understand it."

"You are?"

"A little. Pieces are starting to fall into place, just not all of them."

"Okay," Ruby sat down on a desk. "What do you know?"

"I know there's a White Fang rally the day after tomorrow."

"How did you figure that one out?"

"They have them fairly regularly, I just narrowed down the location and time."

"Again, how?"

Blake sighed, then she pointed out a place on the map where a lot of lines connected. To be fair, that was pretty much everywhere, so it wasn't exactly standing out.

Ruby looked at all of the connections and the result was pretty clear.

Blake had long since surpassed her in building these information nets. Then again, Ruby had only done it once before to find out who Yang's boyfriend was, and that one barely used ten pieces of string.

This was far beyond her understanding. She had to follow multiple strings, of different colors, in order to figure out even one of the reasons. In the end, she gave up.

"Just tell me. You know this thing by heart and I don't. It might take me hours to figure out what you already know."

"Good point," Blake said and she got down from the pile of desks. "The first thing is the time. Why the day after tomorrow? Because today is a Saturday. They wouldn't have the meeting at the weekend because it would attract the wrong kind of crowd. They want faunus that are tired of being discriminated against. They also want faunus that can dedicate a lot of time to the White Fang. In other words, the people they want to recruit are the unemployed. If they were to recruit on a weekday, it would mean they wouldn't get as many people walking out because they don't want to commit, they also lower the chances of people trying to argue against their philosophy. In other words, they get more possible recruits."

Ruby stayed silent and listened. Blake went on to explain about how she found out there wasn't a meeting recently, about how the most likely location was very obvious once you get a hold of police patrol times.

Ruby didn't ask how she got a hold of them.

"So, what do you hope to get out of this," Ruby asked.

"Information. I could ask around, figure things out, and maybe get myself an informant. I need to find out what's going on. Then, if things are as bad as they could be, find out where they keep the dust and stop them."

"As bad as they could be?"

"Weiss thinks they could be making weapons of mass destruction." Ruby was very surprised, but probably for the wrong reason.

"Wait, Weiss is in on this too?"

"Yeah, she's the one that told me to investigate."

"She had no right," Ruby said, fuming. "I'm the leader here. She doesn't get to give you orders."

"It's not that big of a deal. It's not like she ordered me to do it."

"It is a big deal if she undermines my authority." Ruby said.

"She didn't undermine your authority, we just talked about it and she thought it would be a good idea if I investigated."

"It affects the team, so it's my job to deal with it. If you have a talk like that again, I have to take part in it."

"Ruby… that's a little too…"

"Intrusive? Maybe, but how do I know you'll follow my orders if you're keeping things from me?"

"That doesn't mean we have to tell you everything."

"Not everything, no, but if, say, we have to intercept the White Fang robbing a train, would you be able to share your experience if you haven't told anyone about what you know?"

"How did you know about that," Blake asked, stepping back and reaching for her weapon. Way to overreact.

"I know everything." Ruby proclaimed.

"Yeah, right. How did you know?"

"A little birdie told me."

"Ruby, this is serious. Who knows about me?"

Ruby decided this was probably enough. "Ozpin. He has these huge files on all of us. I saw that about you before I managed to look away. I'm sorry."

"Using the thing you're apologizing about against me is a weird way of saying sorry."

"I didn't know how to bring it up." Ruby admitted.

Blake frowned and kicked a desk. Then she turned back to Ruby. "Well, if you couldn't help it I guess that's okay. I'm more worried about how much Ozpin knows about me and why he hasn't kicked me out yet."

"From what I saw, he knows a lot and I don't think he cares."

"He is a second chance kind of guy," Blake said. "Still, I'm a little worried."

"Well, you can go ahead and drown your worries in this special tuna sandwich I got you," Ruby said, presenting it to her.

"You know, sometimes I wonder if you're a genius or an idiot," Blake said.

 _How rude._ "I'm obviously a genius. How else would I be able to lead you three?"

"Geniuses are smart enough to know not to admit they're genius." Blake said while biting into the sandwich. She still kept an eye on her information map.

"Anything else on there I need to know about," Ruby asked.

"Not really. I don't have enough to be sure about anything."

"Is there anything you need that I could get?"

"I guess you could enlist the help of a certain heiress to get me more accurate data on the dust shipments that were stolen."

"Sounds easy enough." Especially now that Weiss trusted her more.

"You could also tell me some more about Roman Torchwick. I haven't been able to figure out where he fits into all of this."

That was a little more difficult. "I already told you everything I know about him. I only met him for a few minutes and under the same circumstances you did." Then Ruby had a brilliant idea. She was totally a genius. "Although, I can think of someone who should be able to find out more."

"I'll leave that to you then," Blake said.

"Yeah, I guess it would be best if we all went out the day after tomorrow."

"Today or tomorrow would be better."

"Yeah, but we need to go out on Monday as your backup, so we might as well combine the two."

"I don't need backup."

"Better safe than sorry. We're going with you whether you like it or not."

"Yes sir." Blake said sarcastically. Ruby decided she did not like Blake's sarcastic voice.

"We should have a meeting about this. Come back to the dorm tonight."

"Fine," she said. Ruby took it as her queue to leave.

* * *

In the meantime, Jaune and Pyrrha continued training.

Pyrrha wondered if training was even the right word for it. What she was doing was closer to bullying.

Maybe she could change her approach.

"Okay, that's enough." She called.

"I can keep going," Jaune said.

"Doesn't matter. We aren't making any progress."

"I can't just give up. Can we please continue?" He pleaded. Well, it's not like Pyrrha could ever say no to that face.

"We can, but we'll do things differently. I shouldn't expect you to hold off my counterattack if you can't even hit me."

"And there goes my self-esteem."

"Jaune, I'm a tournament fighter and you're… not. It would be impossible for you to keep up with me even if you were an experienced hunter."

"I bet Ruby could keep up with you and she's two years younger than me."

Pyrrha sighed. This was a part of Jaune she did not like. "Ruby is a special case. Besides, you'd be surprised. Her scythe is heavy and made of metal. I don't think she'd be able to touch me."

Jaune clearly didn't understand why the scythe being metal was a big deal, but he didn't need to. For now, he was motivated again.

"Okay, I'm going to stop fighting back and you have to hit me. You can do whatever it takes."

"I can't do that, what if I hurt you?"

"Jaune, who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

"Good point," he said and tightened his grip on the sword.

He lunged at Pyrrha, but all she had to do to avoid him was take a step to the side.

"Don't attack as if you're fighting against a tree." she said while dancing around his next few attempts.

Jaune seemed to find some encouragement in her words. His attacks became less erratic and more intelligently placed.

He tried to lead Pyrrha to a wall, but she easily slipped past him and knocked on the back of his head for good measure. By the time he swung around she was already gone.

Jaune cursed under his breath before continuing his barrage of assaults, none of which hit his intended target.

Pyrrha got the feeling that it was going to be a long day.

* * *

Ruby had a lot of free time left, so she decided on training. Her encounter with the Ursa made her wonder if she didn't spend enough time training recently. She took out her sweetheart and made a few practice swings.

It felt the way it always did. Her mistake must have been because she was distracted after all.

She still went through the full training sequence her uncle gave her. She liked practicing with Crescent Rose, so this was more like fun than work for her.

When she finished she decided that she could probably use the whole Jaune scenario even more in her favor than she previously thought. After all, a stronger Jaune meant better backup.

And it's not like he could catch up to Pyrrha in the month or so left until the tournament.

For this plan she was going to need Weiss. Luckily her partner was rather easy to find because of her current occupation. She was also in a good mood, which would help.

"Could you talk to Jaune and Pyrrha when they're done training? I'll tell you when exactly." She said when she found her

"I sincerely hope you don't expect me to accept his advances." Weiss said.

"No, no, just talk to him. I think Jaune hasn't been very motivated to train lately so I thought you could help him out. Just be yourself."

"Which self?"

 _There goes any pretending we're having a normal conversation._ "The real one."

"Do you think he can take it? He could end up less motivated than he started out."

"Hmm, that's true I guess. Go easy on him then."

* * *

Jaune could barely move. Sitting up was a chore. He still pushed himself up and raised his sword.

"I think this is a good place to end it," Pyrrha said.

Jaune would have argued, but his knees buckling gave away just how tired he was. How could Pyrrha dance around him like it's nothing and not have shed a drop of sweat?

"Here," she said and lent him her shoulder.

"Thanks," he said and put some of his weight on her. "Hey Pyrrha, will there ever come a time when you won't have to carry me anymore?"

"Eventually. You can't expect to surpass me in a day."

"I don't. That would be insulting to you, but still, I thought we've been doing something these past few months and it turns out I still can't touch you."

"Jaune, I have been training for years, not months. Even with an excellent teacher, you can't expect to catch up in just a few months. Think about it. You've seen our teammates fight. Do you think you could learn to use aura better than Ren if he teaches you? Could you beat Nora at arm wrestling if you started working out together?"

"So what you're telling me is that no matter what I do, I won't be able to catch up with you? That's not fair."

"Is it fair for you to sneak into this place when a lot of people who have spent their entire lives training don't make it in?" That stung. A lot. Especially because of how true it was. "But that's in the past now. The only thing you can do from here is train every day to make up for it."

"Is making me feel like crap a part of training?"

Pyrrha frowned. "No, I was just trying to motivate you. I'm sorry."

"Well I feel like crap now, so could you tone it down a little?"

"Of course. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"Yes, you did," a familiar voice said from behind them. Jaune turned around to see Weiss carrying a box of decorations. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"I think I trained a little too much," Jaune said with his trademark goofy grin.

It didn't seem to work on Weiss. "I wasn't talking to you."

"Weiss, you're being a little too hostile for someone who was listening in on our conversation."

"If you don't want to be overheard, don't talk about sensitive matters in public. Now, answer my question."

Pyrrha grit her teeth before responding. "I was out training with my leader. He overexerted himself so I'm helping him get to our dorm."

Weiss snorted. "You were pampering over little baby's deflated ego. You should make him realize that he's putting all of you in danger."

"Go bother someone who cares," Pyrrha said and urged Jaune to start moving. He didn't, however.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you realize? Your team is worse off than being a man short. Pyrrha may be doing a good job of filling in as a leader for you, but she's far better suited for combat than giving orders. If you're ever in any real danger as a team, I'm guessing your teammates would all die protecting you because, as stupid as it is, you're their superior officer on the field."

Pyrrha tugged his arm. "Jaune, let's go. She's in a bad mood so she's taking it out on you because you're an easy target."

"I'm in a good mood. That's why I thought I'd save your life." Weiss smiled. "Just a few things to keep in mind, Jaune. Don't think too hard about it. After all, like Pyrrha said, you're an easy target, aren't you? I wouldn't want rumors that I'm bullying you to start flying around."

Pyrrha pulled on his arm more urgently so he said goodbye to Weiss and they went their separate ways.

"What is her problem?" Pyrrha muttered. "I never liked her either, but I would never attack her like that."

Jaune didn't say anything. He was too busy thinking about what Weiss had just said. Was he really that much of a danger to his teammates?

"Hey Pyrrha," he said, not really sure what he was going to ask.

She stopped her rant about Weiss and replied. "Yes?"

"If I'm ever in danger… and the only way to save me is to put yourself in danger… would you do it?"

"Of course." She said without a second of hesitation.

"Isn't that wrong? If I'm the weakest and you're the strongest, doesn't it make sense to let me die? I wouldn't make that big of a difference anyway and without you to protect me I may as well end up dead anyway. Why would you answer something that illogical without any hesitation?"

Pyrrha stopped walking and Jaune, while he may have already recovered enough to walk on his own, decided to stop with her.

"What I said isn't illogical. In that scenario I have a much higher chance of survival than you."

"What if you didn't survive, though? And what if we're protecting someone and they die because you sacrificed yourself for me? What then?"

"Let me ask you something before I answer. If our positions were reversed, what would you do? If I was defenseless and you could save me, what would you do?"

"That's different."

"Is it? Why? Because I'm a girl? Or because you don't want to hurt my feelings with the truth? Those are the only differences I can find. So which is it?"

Jaune didn't remember Pyrrha being this aggressive. "Of course I'd save you."

"Is it different?"

"...I guess not."

* * *

The next thing on Ruby's list was to get Sun to visit Blake.

 _He'll owe me a favor and he won't actually get anything out of it because she's too focused right now to pay attention to anything else._

She giggled. It was a little too easy.

The only problem was finding him. She had no idea where he could be staying and asking Blake would ruin the surprise for her.

It was a stroke of luck that led her to him.

"Hey Ruby, meet my buddy Neptune," Sun said as soon as he saw her.

"Sup," a blue-haired guy who she assumed was supposed to be Neptune said.

"Hey there. Tell me about yourself."

He looked a little confused. "Uh, my name is Neptune and I'm from Haven like Sun."

"I already knew that. I was asking about more specific things. What's your attitude, semblance and how strong are you relatively."

Neptune looked at Sun with a confused expression.

Sun shrugged, as if to say that he had no idea either.

"Well, as far as attitude goes, I'm a pretty cool guy. Semblance, well it wouldn't be as cool if I revealed it before the tournament, would it? And relative strength… Huh, I have no idea what that even means."

Ruby cocked an eyebrow. All he told her so far was that he thought of himself as cool. Not a great start, Neptune. "It means how strong you are compared to someone else. Say, Sun for example."

"Oh, that. I could probably beat him easily if we fought seriously. Although because I don't want to reveal my semblance yet, if we were to fight right now, he would probably win."

Ruby looked at Sun for confirmation.

"Sounds about right. Neptune is the second strongest of our team."

"I think you actually mean just the strongest."

"Yeah, I should probably tell Sage about that, huh?"

Neptune folded his arms in front of himself in a show of confidence. "Go right ahead. I'm a lot more experienced than I was when we first fought."

"I thought you were going to be hiding your semblance from now on." Sun reminded him. Neptune's confidence visibly crumbled.

"Well, I'm sure the tournament isn't going to be that hard," he said with a doubtful smile.

"So you should have no problem telling me now, then?" Ruby jumped in at her chance. This Neptune obviously relied far too heavily on his semblance, so if she figured out how to counter it, that would be one less opponent to worry about.

"Well, I'd rather not. There's always the chance you won't hear of it before our fight, so I think I'd like to take it."

"Suit yourself," Ruby said, not even trying to hide her disappointment. "Anyway, Sun, could you go check on Blake? She's been working on something pretty hard and I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you brought her a snack and something to drink."

Sun looked like he was in heaven. "Really, I guess this might be why she asked me to break into the police station and get their patrol times." _Next time try not broadcasting your criminal activities to all of Beacon._

"You did something like that for someone you met not a week ago?"

"Well, yeah. I kind of like her so I'm not sure if I'm being completely reasonable. Anyway, I'd better go see her."

"Yeah. I was going to just go do it myself, but realized you might like the chance to see her," Ruby said, driving it home that she was doing it as a favor to him. "She's in the last classroom to the left on the second floor in the west wing."

"Thanks," Sun said before heading over to the cafeteria to get snacks.

"So," Ruby said to Neptune. She noticed that he was a little on edge now that he was left alone with her. Maybe she had come on too strong. "How do you like it around here?"

"It's pretty nice, I guess."

"Oh, that's nice." Ruby realized that now that it was just the two of them her conversation skills were starting to fail her, so she started a tactical retreat. "Well, see you around, I guess," she said and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.

That could have gone better.

* * *

Sun found the classroom easily enough, however when he tried to go in, his credentials were rejected.

"The hell?" He knocked on the door but got no answer. "Maybe she isn't here after all."

That's when the door opened and he was pulled inside. The door slammed behind him.

"What are you doing? Don't stand in front of the door like an idiot. Someone might get curious and try to sneak in here."

"And that's a bad thing because?" Sun noticed that the classroom did not look like a classroom anymore. The walls were covered in who knows what and all the desks were put in front of them, probably to allow better reach to the higher parts of... whatever the hell that thing was.

"Because there's sensitive information in here."

"Right." With the things he got for her, that was certainly true. "Anyway, I got you some bottled tea and a couple of snacks."

"Thanks. I appreciate it." She took the bottle and bags of assorted junk food and put them on a table towards the back. Sun noticed there was a large amount of other foods and drinks on it. There was also a sleeping bag on the floor nearby.

"Are you planning on living here?"

"Not for tonight. I have to return to the dorm for a strategy meeting, so I'll sleep there afterwards."

Sun was having trouble taking in his surroundings. The only thing that stood out to him was the White Fang.

"So what is all of this?" He sat down on a desk and much to his delight Blake sat down next to him.

"Well, if you pick a starting point you should eventually take all of it in. If you don't feel like wasting that much time, I can tell you it's a map of all of the information I have on the White Fang and anything related to them and anything related to that and so on."

"Wow." Sun looked around. Was this what Blake's mind looked like?

"Ruby showed me how to do it."

"Ruby's pretty amazing, huh?"

"Not really. She just tries harder than everyone else." Blake got up and wrote something on a note beside a map.

"I think I'll go," Sun found himself saying. "What you're doing seems important and I don't want to get in your way."

"You're not in the way," she said. "But you'll probably be bored out of your mind if you stay."

"I'd never be bored if I'm in the same room as you." Sun felt his heart speed up a little.

Blake didn't react at all, she was too absorbed in whatever she was doing. It looked a lot like staring at her "map of information".

He lay down on a table and looked lazily at Blake.

* * *

After getting dinner with her team, sans Blake, RWBY assembled in their dorm.

"Ruby, can't this wait? I'm so tired I think I could fall asleep before reaching my bed." Yang said.

"No, it can't. Everyone but you already knows, so let's give you a crash course. Blake's been researching the White fang and she needs our help."

"Is that so," Yang's eyes flickered red for a second. "Why?"

"I'm worried they might do something really bad." Blake answered.

"So, the thing you've been worried about is this?"

"I guess."

"And you told everyone but me?"

"I didn't plan on it."

"Whatever, let's just get it over with. I can feel my eyelids getting heavier.

"We're going information hunting after classes the day after tomorrow," Ruby stepped in. "Weiss, you're coming with me to the communication tower where you're going to get dust shipment information from the SDC."

"Why are we going all the way to Vale if I can just do that from my scroll?"

Ruby was tempted to say, because I said so, but she contained herself. "Because I've never seen it and though you'd like to take me."

Yang made an ooh-ing noise.

"Excuse my sister for being an idiot." Ruby said.

"I guess that's fine," Weiss said, completely ignoring Yang.

"Blake, you should get your faunus slave to go with you to the White Fang meeting."

"Faunus slave?"

"Sun. The guy you're having break into police stations."

"Right, I guess that was a little too much to ask."

"Geez, you think?" Yang said with a yawn.

"He met me in the hallway and asked if he could help with anything. For what it's worth, I didn't expect him to accept."

"He's head over heels for you," Ruby said. "Of course he's going to do anything you ask."

"He is? That's unfortunate. I don't have the time for something like that." Ruby could almost see Sun's hopes and dreams falling apart.

"And finally, Yang, I need you to go ask your information broker what he knows about Roman Torchwick."

"Information broker? Who's that? Are you giving my friends weird nicknames again?"

"Hei Xiong?"

"Who's that?" Ruby could not believe how dense her sister was. Could she really not know the name of her own informant?

"Hei Xiong is an owner of a club in Vale. He loaned some men to Roman Torchwick before we came to Beacon. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything."

Everyone looked at Blake.

"What? I had to find out where the people that attacked Ruby in that dust shop robbery came from. I found a column about their arrest in a newspaper."

"Pretty sure it was Ruby attacking them," Yang said. "But now I know who you were talking about, sis. That guy is supposed to know everything that goes on in Vale. He could be a gold mine. How did you know about him? Moreover, how do you know his real name when even I don't know it?"

Ruby looked at her sister calmly. "I know everything."

Yang's reaction was a lot different from Blake's. She started to back away from her sister.

"No way... If you know about that... Dad's gonna kill me."

Ruby saw her chance. "Know about what, Yang? That time you..." She was cut off by Yang's hand over her mouth.

"Ruby, I swear I will do anything for you if you forget about it. I mean it, anything you want. I'll even get you your own private mountain of cookies."

 _All according to plan._

When Yang released her, Ruby said: "You know, I suddenly forgot what I was talking about." She noticed Blake and Weiss' grins. She felt the corners of her mouth moving up. "Anyway, it's getting a little late, so we should hit the sack. Half of this team has to work hard tomorrow as well."

Weiss and Yang groaned loudly as Ruby turned the lights off.

"I have stuff to do too you know," Blake said while climbing into her bed.

"Three quarters," Ruby fought back her sleepiness long enough to correct herself.


	7. Chapter 19 - A very lonely Weiss

"You know, I expected you to break your promise, but not this soon," Weiss heard from behind her. She jumped back and saw that Ruby had somehow managed to sneak up on her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"You've been avoiding all of us ever since we got back. Didn't you promise me that if you ever needed anything you would come talk to me?"

Weiss' eyes narrowed. Had she really made such a stupid promise? "I don't need to talk to you. Leave me alone."

"I know that's not true," Ruby said. "I thought you said weren't going to lie to me either."

"I'm leaving," Weiss said and picked up the bag she had left on the ground.

"I'm going to get you to talk to me, no matter what," Ruby said and cut her escape route off.

Weiss tried to push past her, but Ruby held her in place. "Unless you plan on torturing me, good luck. I neither need nor particularly want to talk to you right now."

"How'd you guess," Ruby said, unfolding her scythe. Weiss took a step back.

What was going on with Ruby? She was even more unreasonable than usually. With the look she had in her eyes, Weiss was worried she was actually going to attack.

"Wait, I don't have any aura," Weiss said. "Are you really going to attack me while I'm like this?"

"I won't use any either," Ruby dismissed Weiss' only excuse. "Now, prepare yourself. I'm going to snap you out of this bitchy mood of yours and force you to talk to me."

"Damn it, Ruby," Weiss said through gritted teeth. "Keep your nose out of my business."

"Nope," Ruby said in a monotone voice. "Now, I would recommend defending yourself unless you want to get hurt."

Weiss barely drew Myrtenaster in time to block. Even without Ruby using her semblance, the power behind the scythe was enough to send Weiss flying back.

Were they really going to do this? It was beyond reckless, even worse than Ruby's usual plans. She concentrated and tried to figure out her partner's attacks.

Suddenly, her right arm felt numb. When she looked down, she saw that her sleeve was beginning to turn red.

"Are you even paying attention?" Ruby yelled before starting another attack. Weiss tried to meet it head on but was forced off with ease. She stumbled back with no idea where up was.

She quickly got her bearings and looked around, only to see Ruby using her scythe to prop herself up. She yawned theatrically "You know, it's not a lot of fun to fight someone who's not fighting back."

"I'm trying, but unless you haven't noticed, my options are a little limited right now." Weiss said and raised her sword.

"No, you're not," Ruby said. "I've seen you fight. This isn't it." She picked her scythe up. "How about we up the stakes? If you don't start fighting me seriously, I'll kill you for real."

It was painfully obvious to Weiss that Ruby was bluffing, but she didn't count out the possibility of her getting carried away and dealing a serious injury. "Ruby, your specialty is combat like this. Of course you're going to be superior to me when I don't have an aura to use glyphs. There's nothing I can do."

"At this speed even Jaune would be putting up more of a fight than you are," she said. "You don't have an excuse."

"I'm not looking for one! It's simply impossible for me to fight you like this."

"Yes you can!" Ruby yelled. They had been yelling for a while. "I feel like you're not even there, Weiss. I have to bring you back to the ground right here, right now."

Weiss shook her head. "What does that even mean?"

"I want my partner back and I'm going to force her out. Whoever's possessing you right now isn't going to be nearly enough for you to survive this."

Weiss was actually starting to get concerned for Ruby.

"I have no idea what you're thinking," she said.

"Exactly," Ruby said. "The you from a week ago could have guessed my exact thoughts right now. Doesn't it make sense to try to get inside the head of the person you're fighting? You just don't care enough to do it, isn't that right?"

"Ruby, this has gone on for long enough." Weiss said. "I'm leaving."

"I'm not going to let you," Ruby said. Weiss met her cold, grey eyes. Was that really the same Ruby she knew?

Looking down, Weiss saw a small pool of blood that had come from her arm. From the cut Ruby made.

She gripped her sword tighter. That wasn't Ruby in front of her. It was an enemy and she had to treat her as such.

Ruby ran forward without warning and they clashed, Weiss getting easily overpowered once again, but this time she expected it. She absorbed the momentum and rolled to the side.

Ruby grinned at her before pursuing.

Weiss quickly realized that fighting Ruby head on was impossible for her. Ruby's speed, strength, agility, dexterity, everything physical was vastly superior to Weiss'. As such, the only chance Weiss had was to outsmart her, something that was in no way easy, but at least it was possible.

Weiss noticed that Ruby's eyes were always following her, not even diverting to survey the battlefield. Normally that would have been a great lead, but Ruby knew the Beacon courtyard like the back of her hand. There was nothing Weiss could use against her.

Or was there? Was there something she was missing? Ruby was keeping her promise of fighting without her semblance, which meant that she wasn't nearly as quick.

Weiss thought back to the way Ruby fought. She used mostly hit and run tactics, which weren't nearly as effective without her incredible mobility. However, she still relied on inertia to give her attacks their weight. Normally she could fall back very quickly if an enemy managed to force back or sidestep her blows, but now she had no such advantage.

She wondered if there was some way she could break Ruby's inertia and step inside of the one and a half meter area around her that she couldn't reach with her scythe. As she met another of Ruby's slashes and her gaze fell to Myrtenaster.

Of course. She activated the rapier manually and blasted Ruby's scythe back with a small explosion.

Of course the recoil was very painful, however Ruby was slightly off balance and Weiss couldn't let that chance go. She quickly charged her and pushed the scythe she was trying to raise back down when she reached her and at the same time continued walking towards her, already inside the bubble Crescent Rose couldn't attack in and walking faster than Ruby could back up.

Then Ruby hit a wall and Weiss pressed her blade against the girl's neck.

"Are we done here?" she asked.

"You tell me," Ruby said, grinning. "How do you feel?"

A strange question, but Weiss decided to answer it. "Angry. How did you expect me to feel when you attacked me out of nowhere?"

"Is anger worse than how you felt before?"

Weiss opened her mouth to answer, but then she realized that it couldn't possibly have been.

Anger was certainly easier. A more basic emotion.

And more importantly, she had better things to do then mope around, feeling sorry for herself.

Sure, fighting Ruby made her angry, but winning actually made her feel... proud? Happy? She couldn't really figure it out but it didn't matter. It was good.

Maybe in her own weird way, Ruby had tried to look out for her. Even without knowing anything, she still managed to make her feel better. But still, what a stupid way to do it. It was almost like something Yang would do.

"So you and Yang aren't as different as you make it look on the outside," Weiss muttered. She wondered why she chose to say that our loud. It was a stupid thought. "In any case, I want to repeat this when I'm back to full power. Let's see what a real fight between us would look like." She said and turned to leave. She took five steps before the whole world spun and she fell to the ground.

* * *

"Do I want to know?" Yang asked when she saw her little sister carrying Weiss to the infirmary.

"I kinda may have inadvertently almost killed her," Ruby said in a small voice.

"What did you do?" Yang decided to go with understanding. If that didn't work, she was going to start yelling.

"Forced her to duel me and afterwards completely forgot that I cut her and she was bleeding out. I really hope we don't end up having to take care of teammates without aura anymore."

Hearing her sister say that was just too bizarre for Yang. "Who are you and what have you done with Ruby?"

"I grew up," Ruby answered immediately.

Yang didn't know how to answer that. Ruby was certainly becoming more and more mature each day, but was this really okay?

"Why did you duel her when she didn't have an aura?" She asked.

"Didn't you notice how depressed she's been looking lately? I thought it would cheer her up."

Sometimes Yang wondered if her sister wasn't actually an idiot. "Did you actually think that would work?"

"But it did. She was practically back to her old self before collapsing."

While they were talking they had already reached the infirmary. Ruby Carried Weiss in, while Yang decided she preferred to avoid that place and that horrible woman.


	8. Chapter 10 - A night out in the town

**The characters in this chapter that had not appeared in the show at that point are not the same characters as the characters that will appear/have appeared in the canon show. They are my interpretation of what I wanted them to be before we actually knew anything about them. This is true for anything after season two in all chapters.**

* * *

The weekend passed quickly and after a day of classes it was time to start the mission. Team RWBY, Sun and Neptune gathered in the dorm.

"Everyone knows what to do, right?" Ruby asked.

"Uh, I don't" Neptune raised his hand.

"You weren't in the plan, so that's obvious. Go with Yang as backup. None of us should be out this late on our own. Not with everything that's been going on."

"Hey, I can take care of myself," Yang said.

"I know. I want you to take care of him."

"I don't need..." Neptune started, but Ruby cut him off with a glare. Bad enough that he was poking his head into their plans, but he was not going to waste any more time.

Weiss looked like she wanted to protest, but thought better of it.

"Let's go."

* * *

The operation hadn't even started and things were already going wrong. They were running late, so Ruby told Weiss to pick up the pace.

Surprisingly, Weiss complied without complaining.

Miracles seemed to be the theme today, she thought while looking at a girl who she thought had disappeared from the face of the Earth.

"Weiss, you can handle this on your own, right," she asked.

"I would actually prefer it," Weiss answered.

"Good. I'm going to go talk to Penny for a second. You go on ahead."

"Okay," Weiss said and continued walking to the tower.

Ruby approached Penny cautiously, careful not to spook her.

"Hello Ruby," Penny greeted her even though Ruby was sure she couldn't possibly have noticed her. Then again, with someone that strong she should have expected it.

"Hello Penny. How are you?"

"Sensational, as always. How about you?"

"I've been better. Someone I thought of as a friend disappeared mysteriously and I've been worried sick lately."

"Why, we should look for your friend. They could be in trouble."

"Oh, I found her already. I'm just waiting for her to figure it out."

Ruby could almost see Penny's brain working to connect the dots.

"You're talking about me, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Oh. I supposed I do owe you an explanation, however I do believe it would be best if we chose another location for it."

"What's wrong with here?"

"You never know who could be watching or listening in," Penny said. "I can only leave this place if I have a good reason for it. Wanting to talk to a friend in private is good enough."

"What do you mean? Are you held here against your will?"

"No, I am not. However it is better for me if I stay with my guards." Ruby realized that something was very wrong.

"Isn't that being held against your will?"

"No, the guards are here for my own good, as well as the good of the citizens of Vale."

"Are you sure they didn't tell you that so you wouldn't rebel?"

"Yes."

Ruby was still suspicious, but then she realized that Penny probably couldn't talk about it in a spot like this, as she had already told her. If only she bothered to listen this wouldn't have been necessary.

"Well, let's go somewhere else and talk then." Ruby said.

* * *

Weiss walked into the communication tower and asked for a private booth. She then dialed the Schnee offices.

To her surprise, a very familiar face appeared in front of her.

"Oh, my God, Weiss?" Weiss groaned internally.

"Winter? Why are you taking calls for the secretaries?"

"I definitely haven't told them to redirect any calls from Vale to my office. Nope. I haven't been waiting for my sister to call me for months or anything. But enough about that, what's going on with you? How have you been? Did you make any friends? I bet you did. Even you have to give people a chance if your life depends on it. Anyway, you need to call more. Dad has been worried sick about you. No that he'd show it or anything, but I can tell. Call him if you have a second."

"Winter."

"Sorry, I got carried away, didn't I?" She bowed her head formally and apologized again.

"A little, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, you're at the Schnee Dust Company headquarters, right? I need you to do something for me."

"Okay. As soon as you tell me how your huntressing is going. Oh, I almost forgot, did you meet any cute boys? I bet you did. Those big and burly hunters look just like your type."

"This is serious. I didn't call to catch up. I'm on a mission."

She made a sad face. It looked exactly like the emoticon. "I'm a little hurt. The first time you call me in ages and it's because of a mission. You really don't look out for your little sister. I could die of boredom here, you know?"

"Maybe you should become a huntress as well. That way you'll know that when I say I'm on a mission, it means lives are at stake."

"I'd love to, but you know dad would bring you back if I wasn't around to keep him company. Besides, I may complain about boredom, but I don't know if I could handle an exciting life." This was probably the worst aspect of Winter's personality: Her inability to think of anything other than herself. "But I guess it might be worth it if I make a name for myself. Winter Schnee, greatest huntress that ever lived. Can you imagine it?"

"No."

"You don't have to be so confident about it." She sulked.

"Winter, could we please get to business? If I continue going along with your antics the family fortune won't be enough to pay the phone bill."

"Isn't it your job to play the straight man and stop me?"

"I can't hit you over the phone, so this is the best I can do."

They kept looking at each other. Weiss could tell that a very large part of Winter wanted to tell her about her shopping trip yesterday but, to her surprise, her sister contained herself.

"What can I do for you?" She probably practiced that in front of the mirror. She looked nothing like herself when she said it.

"I need you to send me the records for all the dust shipments the company has been making."

"Isn't that sensitive information?" Yes. And Weiss was planning on giving it to a former White Fang member. She thought it best not to disclose that.

"I need it for an investigation into dust robberies that have been going on around Vale."

Her sister's eyebrows knit together. Almost as if she was thinking hard about it. Since when could Winter think? Must be a new thing. "I feel like I should ask dad. I could be in a lot of trouble if he finds out I did something like that behind his back."

"This is a very dangerous investigation. If dad finds out about it, so will the board of directors and then all of Atlas will know in a matter of days. I don't want to get attacked in an alley."

A strange thing about Winter was that she would believe anything her sister told her, regardless of any training she may get for spotting lies, or how improbable the lie.

"Okay, I can see why you would want to keep it to yourself. I'll send it to your scroll encrypted with a password of my choice. You should be able to crack it eventually."

That was probably the best she was going to get. They were under the same contract of protecting company secrets, after all.

"Thank you," Weiss bowed her head slightly. Winter earned it.

"If dad saw you doing that he'd slap you."

"I'd like to see him try," Weiss said, raising her arm as if to show her bicep. A second into it she realized what she was doing and lowered her arm while trying to hide her face. She had been spending too much time with Yang.

"Bwahahahahahaha."Winter could have been a little more considerate of her sister. "I'm sorry, it's just that seeing you do that and remembering what you used to be like before going to Vale is too precious."

Weiss frowned while Winter continued laughing. "I've been spending too much time with an unfavorable crowd," she said.

"Are you kidding me? You've been too uptight since you were a kid. I'm glad someone's loosening you up."

"It isn't proper for an heiress to behave like that."

"So what? You should be a huntress first and an heiress second." That was a very strange thing for her to say. After all, as far as anyone outside of Beacon was concerned, the only remarkable thing about Weiss was her inheritance.

"I guess." She answered. "Still, something like that is too uncharacteristic of me. It would make people wonder what happened to the real Weiss."

Winter laughed again. "Sis, you think waaay too much."

True.

"Anyway, I've been hearing something about a festival in Vale. I think I'll come over and see you for myself. It's been too long." Winter said.

Weiss remembered having nightmares like this. They all involved her sister meeting her teammates.

"Please don't."

"Oh, come on. I wanna see how you've matured. I bet you walk all regal-like now that you're a real fighter. Hey, there's a tournament after the festival, right? Maybe I'll enter and we can have a match." This was going bad very quickly.

"Winter, please. Vale is pretty dangerous right now and I don't have the time to babysit you."

"I'll bring my bodyguards. You don't have to worry about me." That was not the problem.

"Winter, I just want to have some fun. I can't do that if this place is full of people that will report to our father."

Winter frowned. "I guess that's true. I know, I'll just bring my own guards, not his." Winter, take the hint already.

"If you chose them I'll have to look after you anyway."

"That's mean, sis."

"It's the truth. Just stay in Atlas."

"I know, I know, I'll have you get me some guards. How about it? That works, right? You must know some people who know some people who have good hired muscle."

"Like I said, I have work to do right now and it probably won't be over until after the festival. I can't waste time looking for people who I can trust to help you put on a tight dress and also fight off White Fang."

"White Fang? Weiss, what's going on? If the White Fang are after you maybe you should come back home." And that was the moment Weiss realized how badly she messed up.

"It was just an example. Don't think too much. That's my job." Weiss backtracked quickly.

"Right, sorry. Well, I think I've kept you long enough. I'll think of something and we'll see each other at the Vytal festival." She hung up before Weiss could get another word out.

"Dammit Winter," she murmured under her breath.

Her sister was the only person that she could never quite keep up with.

* * *

"Are you sure these disguises will be good enough? I feel like if someone I know saw me on the street, they would say hi." Sun said while putting his hood up.

"Would you rather hide your face? That's a lot more suspicious. Besides, they give out masks at the entrance. We'll be fine." Blake checked her appearance in a mirror and thought it would be good enough. There shouldn't be any higher-ups who could recognize her anyway.

"Why do they give out masks?"

"Because they want the new recruits to think like they're already monsters. Makes accepting what they have to do a lot easier."

"That's… a little disturbing, honestly. What do they have to do?"

"The new recruits? Not a lot. Go to all the protests and start a conflict if they are told to, help around the hideouts, things like that. Then some of them are picked to go with an operative as backup, while in reality they are little more than cannon fodder. If they do well they are given a personalized mask. That means that they are allowed to go up the ranks and eventually they start going to more extreme missions."

"I knew I shouldn't have asked."

"Don't you want to know about the extreme missions?"

"Probably not, but lay it on me. It can't be as bad as I imagine it is."

"Anything from minor the theft you're very familiar with, to assassination and terrorism."

Sun didn't ask anything after that and silently accompanied Blake as she narrowed down the location and then scouted it out.

All that was left was to wait for the sun to set and the real mission was going to start.

* * *

There seemed to be more guards than before, Yang thought, but some of them she recognized from the last time she was here. After seeing a scowl from her, they got out of her way and the rest followed suit.

"Wow, you must be pretty well known around here." Neptune said.

"Not really."

They entered the club and the first thing both Yang noticed were the twins.

They scowled at her so she decided not to bother them. Neptune, on the other hand, had no such reservations.

"Hello ladies, how are you doing?"

"We were doing well," Militia started.

"Until some guy came over to bother us," Melanie finished.

"Right, well that's cool. I have some things to discuss with your boss, but I'll be sure to see you on the way out." Yang was surprised that the twins had enough self-control to resist kicking him out. Maybe it was because he was with her. Oh, well, nothing she could do about it now.

She reached the bar and waited for Junior to notice her.

The moment he saw her eyes, he took a step back. Then he collected himself, raised his head and tried to look confident. "Hello, Blondie... sir."

"Cut that out. We're friends now, Junior. You shouldn't call me sir. It sounds so cold." She smiled lazily.

Junior seemed at a loss, so she continued.

"What? I'm sorry about last time. I was in a bad mood. Anyway, how about you do your friend a favor and share some much needed information?"

"I haven't learned anything about your mystery woman if that's what you're wondering."

"Oh, no, this isn't about that. You see, last time I was here, I was here for my own satisfaction." She changed the tone of her voice to a very serious one. "I'm working right now."

Yang was delighted to see him squirm, but she was surprised that he didn't seem to be as awkward around her anymore.

"What do you need?" He took out two glasses and poured a generous amount of alcohol into both. This must be a part of negotiating with him. Or maybe he was showing hospitality. To her at least.

Anyway time to get to work. "Roman Torchwick. What do you know?"

"Why do you think I know anything about him?"

"Really?" She raised one eyebrow for extra effect. "Because I heard from a reliable source that he was using some hired muscle that looked a lot like your hired muscle. Care to explain?"

"I loaned him some men. So what? How was I supposed to know he was going to use them to rob dust stores?"

"Junior, I'm not the police. I don't care about your criminal dealings. I just care about Torchwick. Now, tell me everything."

"What is there to tell? He came in asking for men. I gave him men. They never came back." He swallowed about half of the contents of his glass and Yang followed suit.

There was a short silence, which Neptune took as his chance to get in on the conversation.

"By never came back, you don't mean…"

"Yeah, I mean exactly what I said. Killed in prison. Bastards must have learned too much." Junior finished off his glass and slammed it down on the table with more force than necessary.

Yang, however, had a very nice idea because of this. "Is that so?" She asked, unable to hide her smile.

"I fail to see the amusement you find in my guys getting killed."

"I guess that was a little insensitive. Whatever, I'll tell you what I was thinking. If they got killed, that must mean his lackeys learn things that could be dangerous for him. Say, Neptune, wouldn't you like to take a part-time job as security for this club? I'm sure Junior here would pay a hefty sum to anyone who can keep his club from getting burned down." The threat in her voice was well disguised, but she had no doubts Junior would pick up on it.

"Aside from the fact that this is clearly extortion, is he even going to be of any use? No offence kid, but you don't look all that tough."

"He is a hunter. Even the worst hunter's going to be an upgrade from what you have." Well, almost a hunter, but she was rounding up.

She did her best to avoid looking at the twins, but couldn't resist sneaking a peak. They didn't look any happier. Maybe they never looked happy.

"I don't need a part-time job." Neptune said.

"Do you have something more important to do? If you start hanging around here, Roman might hear about it and decide to hire you. Then we'll know everything he doesn't want us to know."

"Isn't that dangerous? I mean Roman did kill the previous guys."

"You'll be fine." She said and patted him on the back with enough force to nearly knock him over along with the bar stool he was sitting on.

"Yang, I'm not so sure..."

She pulled him close, as if to keep Junior from hearing. "You'll get to hang with the twins all day. I'm doing you a favor here."

Neptune looked at them and back to Yang. "I guess I could give it a try," he said.

And so lust won out over common sense once again. Yang felt like celebrating.

"Great. Now go meet your new coworkers."

She turned back to Junior who had taken the time to pour himself another drink.

"So, back to what I want to know. Roman Torchwick. Tell me everything."

"I already did."

"No you haven't. You told me about your dealings with him. You have yet to tell me about the man himself." Ruby was very adamant about this. She said something along the lines of wanting to be able to think like him in the future.

"Well shit, pull up a chair." He topped off Yang's glass. "I guess I should start by saying that he's an opportunist if there ever was one. He'll do anything as long as the pay is good enough. That always gets him in trouble, so word is he's gotten pretty good at fighting, maybe enough to stand against some hunters. I could go into detail about some of the jobs he's done, but I'm sure you don't want to listen to that."

"I do. There could be a connection in there somewhere."

"True, I guess. Well according to what I've heard, he prefers to do heist-like jobs. Stealing art, jewelry, hell, I heard he stole a rare species of dog once. There are also some rumors that he invaded a top secret facility to satisfy some rich guy's curiosity, but that could be something he made up in order to boost his credibility."

"So he's a thief and infiltrator?" Yang took a sip from her glass in order to not appear rude.

"Like I said, he prefers them, but he would do anything if you offer him enough money. He's done scams, smuggling, kidnapping, you name it. You should probably be writing this stuff down." He took the time to take a gulp of whiskey.

"I have a good memory. But still, this doesn't tell me anything. Is there something you know he would never do?"

"Well, a man has his limits, but I don't know. Anything I haven't listed he could maybe do, but I can't give you anything more concrete. However I do know that he must be getting paid a lot."

"How do you know that?"

"He always gets paid a lot."

"And how does that help me?"

"You know there's someone behind him pulling the strings and now you know they're fairly rich."

"I guess that does help. Thanks." Yang got up to leave, but he caught her shoulder.

"One last thing, if you see a short girl with weird eyes with him, run. I am not kidding. Turn around and hope you'll be able to get away."

"What's that supposed to mean? Is she some associate of his?"

"I've heard rumors that they've been seen together recently. That girl… she's not right. You can tell that the only thing she's thinking about while looking at you is ripping your guts out."

"Why did you wait so long to bring it up?"

"Because they're only rumors. It isn't enough to assume anything, but it's enough for a warning. Don't think too much of it, but do keep an eye out." Yang's eyes narrowed. This could be a lead.

"Anything else you can tell me about the girl?"

"Only that she came to this club once and I had never felt that kind of terror before in my life. It's like you know she could cut you into pieces and is wondering whether to do it." It was pretty clear Junior was spooked, but that didn't really tell her much.

"Anything else?"

"Not really. Just watch your back."

"Okay, fine, I get it." Yang said and waved at Neptune to tell him they were leaving. The twins looked relieved.

"I'm serious. Don't get killed, kid."

"All that alcohol sure made you ballsy. Don't call me kid unless you want to bring your nuts home in a baggy." Yang said and walked out, Neptune following like a well-trained puppy.

* * *

Junior watched the blonde leave and then put her glass away.

"You know, she really reminds me of you," he said loudly.

"You're just so easy to abuse," a voice said from behind him. He didn't need to turn around to know that he wouldn't find the owner of said voice there. "You're like a big, cuddly teddy bear that tries to be scary."

"Maybe, but it takes guts to stand up to me when surrounded by my guards."

"Can we stop talking about that kid? My head's starting to hurt."

"That's the alcohol's fault, not the kid's."

"You shouldn't call her a kid," Militia said.

"After all..." Melanie added.

"...you wouldn't want to wake up..."

"...with your testicles missing."

"I wish you two would stop that," the voice said. "It gives me an even worse headache."

"I'm not going to cover for you next time," Junior said.

"You said that last time." Melanie was quick to point out.

"I mean it this time. I'm not going to protect you anymore. She's your responsibility, you deal with her."

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. That was a sarcastic laugh in case you couldn't tell. You are going to do exactly what I tell you to. Unless you want me to expose all of your not-so-legal dealings to the law."

Junior grit his teeth. Why did these women always pick on him?

"Why don't you talk to her? The girl only wants to meet her mother."

"Because I am not that girl's mother. I may have given birth to her, but that is all. There is nothing for us to talk about. As far as she's concerned, I'm a stranger."

"Doesn't that seem wrong to you? Are you going to let her wonder what her mother is like for the rest of her life? A child needs her parents."

"What do you think will happen? I meet her and she starts asking me things she doesn't want to know about. Why did you leave mommy? Why couldn't you love daddy? Why didn't you take me with you? Why didn't you come back mommy? Don't you love me?"

"She's seventeen, not seven."

"Should I be concerned that you know her age?"

"You don't get to be protective if she's a stranger to you."

"Fair enough. Go bone her for all I care."

Junior emptied his glass and looked at his hands for a while.

"You know what I think?"

"I don't want to, but I'm sure you'll tell me."

"You're the one that holds the strings in our relationship. If you don't want to listen to me you can always cut communication off."

"Don't say relationship. The girls will misunderstand."

"As if he would ever..."

"...want anything to do with someone like you."

"Do you want me to come up there and kick the shit out of you?"

The twins wisely shut up.

"And wipe those shit-eating grins off your faces. I can practically hear them."

Junior decided to continue before she managed to divert the conversation again. "Anyway. What I think is this. You don't want her to be disappointed with you."

"Do you really think I care what some girl, who happened to come out of my vagina at one point or another, thinks of me?"

"If you didn't you would have come out and told her to piss off. And besides, she's more than your daughter, she's her father's daughter and she's a promising huntress-in-training."

"Considering how little I give a fuck about Tai or the whole Hunter organization, I think I can safely assume that argument is warm, gooey and it just came out of a bull's asshole."

She was silent for a second. "Give me a second, I gotta go throw up."

"Maybe you wouldn't need to if you didn't go into details about the texture of bull feces as often as you do."

He was met with the sounds of retching into a toilet.

Junior waited patiently for her to finish while the twins made faces of disgust at him.

"That's..." she flushed the toilet. "A little better." The sound of her drinking something was heard. "Where was I? Oh, right. You think I should care what she thinks of me because of Taiyang or the Hunters. Why? Both don't give a shit about me and the feeling is very mutual."

"You used to be a huntress."

"Guess which part of that sentence is key, jackass. I USED TO BE one. As in I realized they just send you out to die and if you do they replace you like nothing ever happened. I could never acknowledge someone stupid enough to want to be one."

"So are you going to let an innocent girl get trapped into that kind of life?"

"It's not my job to interfere. Kids are stupid. I was stupid when I was her age. Let her make her own mistakes and deal with the consequences. Why would she even listen to me anyway?"

"Do you want her to listen to you?"

"How did you come up with that? I just gave a hypothetical situation."

"Why can't you talk straight for once in your life?"

"What do you mean talk straight? I only made out with a girl in my second year to piss off Summer. Other than that, I'm the straightest woman in Remnant."

"I mean talk about the thing I'm talking to you about. I don't give a damn about your sexual exploits. I give a damn that you're here in my club drinking my booze and scaring off my customers when you could be out adventuring with your daughter."

She laughed. "So this entire thing comes down to you not wanting me around anymore? And here I thought you cared about my darling little girl."

"What, care about a girl that broke into my club twice to assault me and threaten me and whose mother seems to be the bane of my existence? Honestly, maybe I do. But I care a lot more about the fact that I used to make almost twice as much money per night before you came around. But I'd be lying if that was all there is to it. That girl is a good girl. Maybe I don't want her to end up like you."

The voice was silent for a while.

"Implying my life is anything other than perfect."

"A thirty-five year old single woman living in a basement who hasn't seen the sun or had any form of meaningful communication with anything other than a bottle for the last five years is surely living the dream."

"It's better than the alternative. Once your friends start dropping like flies and nearly everyone you ever met is dead, I hope you can keep up the ridiculous battles and colorful costumes. Face it, this world has been going to shit ever since the creativity apologists won the war."

"Creativity apologists... Wow. Of all the stupid shit that comes out of your mouth... You're named after a color too, you know."

"Are we really going to have this discussion? I'm not nearly drunk enough."

"No, of course not. You have successfully managed to sidetrack me completely. I don't even remember what I was talking about before."

"Something about me not wanting to meet my daughter because of how disappointed she would be with me."

"Aren't you?"

"Aren't I what? You're not making any sense."

"Aren't you afraid that she'll be disappointed with you?"

"Afraid? Yeah. But it doesn't matter because it will never happen. She will continue being ignorant of my presence and I'll continue not caring.

"If you don't care, why were you listening in on us?"

"Because it's amusing. Now, if we're done here, I'm going to get myself another bottle, fuck myself with the empty one, and pass out in the bathtub. Goodnight."

"Yeah, we're done," Junior said.

"She wasn't listening," Militia chimed in.

"...but you already knew that." Melanie finished.

"I like to pretend we have conversations instead of me talking to a wall. Also, she's right. Just because you can read each other's minds doesn't mean you have to speak in turns. It's annoying."

They exchanged a look and said "Whatever" in unison.

Junior prayed to whatever deity would listen that it wasn't going to be their new "thing".

* * *

Ruby led Penny through the maze-like small streets of Vale.

"So, what was all of that about," she asked as they exited into a crowded square. Even if anyone managed to follow them here, they would quickly lose them in the crowd.

"Nothing really." Penny said. "I did not want the guards reporting to my father about you."

"Are you in trouble? Why do you have guards with you?"

"Because I should not have helped you that night on the docks. A lot of people were put in danger because of it."

"Well yeah, but no one died. You probably saved a lot of lives by stopping the White Fang from getting all of that dust."

"The fact that no one died that time was merely luck. If that bullhead had gotten further away, I would have crashed it into a building to stop it."

"Why?"

"I had to stop the White Fang from obtaining unsafe amounts of dust. I am" hic "trained to accomplish a mission regardless of collateral damage. I am also an Atlesian soldier. I cannot act in ways that may cause tension between the two nations. Consequently, I must now be accompanied by guards at all times in order to prevent me from" hic "doing something bad."

If nothing else, it made sense. However Ruby couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong here. Those hiccups were also pretty suspicious, but she decided not to press her.

"I guess if you know what's going on it's your choice if you want to put up with it."

"Indeed. I am well aware that my situation is unusual, but for now it would be best for everyone if I was not left to roam around without supervision."

"Aren't you without supervision right now?"

"I am with you."

"You were with me at the docks."

Penny stopped walking. "I have to go back. I'm sorry Ruby, but it would be for the best."

Before she could take another step, Ruby took her hand. "There are soldiers right over there," she said, pointing at a stage in the middle of the square. "I think they're giving some sort of presentation. Why don't we move closer to them and if you feel like you need them you can call out to them. Okay?"

Penny took a deep breath, looked around and then nodded.

"Okay. That was some very quick thinking on my part, if I do say so myself. Anyway, do you want to hang out here for a while?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I wonder what Atlesian soldiers are doing all the way out here."

"They are showing some new weaponry that will be given to Vale in the coming months."

"That's right, you would know about it." Ruby looked at the stage, but all she saw were humanoid robots. Hardly exciting weaponry. Then a hologram appeared in the middle, showing a bigger robot, one that apparently could be piloted by people. Was this supposed to be impressive? Everybody should know robots are unreliable.

To her dismay, the crowd around them cheered.

"Well that was underwhelming," she said to Penny.

"Ruby, could we go somewhere else?"

"Sure, but don't you have to be near the soldiers?"

Penny looked hesitantly between Ruby and the Atleasian soldiers on the stage.

"I don't... I want to leave, but I can't. What should I do?"

"Why do you want to leave?"

"Because I don't... want... to see those... things. They're different."

"What do you mean? What are they different from?"

Penny shook her head and turned away from her. Was she going to cry?

"Penny? I'm sorry if I said something I shouldn't have. Let's leave, okay?"

"I can't do that. Not unless I am accompanied by a guard."

"How about this: I'll be your guard." Ruby was sure that wasn't going to work. After all, she already said she wasn't fit to be a guard because she didn't stop her at the docks.

"Will you really? That's great." Penny's head popped up with a smile on. "Where would you like to go?"

Ruby thought that maybe she should give up on trying to guess what Penny was going to do.

"We can go to a candy store I guess. I have a couple of hours to kill, so if you're free we might as well indulge in some sweetness."

"I would love to join you," Penny said. "However it would be for the best if I returned before people realize I am missing."

Ruby groaned internally. Why did she think of that just now? "Okay then, I'll escort you back to the tower."

"That would be splendid," she said and held out her hand for Ruby to hold.

Ruby took her hand and they started walking. When they got there, Ruby remembered to invite her to the Beacon dance.

"I would love to come," Penny said happily.

"It's a date," Ruby said.

* * *

Cracking the password Winter set was going to be so easy. After all, the girl can think of nothing other than herself.

Weiss sat down on a bench and opened the message she received on her scroll. When asked for a password she entered "WinterQueen" and she got a message saying that she was right.

The file started decrypting.

"Too easy," she muttered. That was the same password Winter had two years ago.

Looking at the data she couldn't help wondering what Blake needed it for.

After all, this information would be perfect for planning a few heists.

Weiss shook her head at herself. Blake wasn't stupid enough to betray them this obviously. Besides, she seemed to be sincere about wanting to bring the White Fang down.

Looking at the information at the tips of her fingers, she couldn't help hesitating before sending it to everyone. Maybe it would be best if she controlled what Blake got.

Then again, if she was planning on using it against her, she could just ask for whatever she needed and Weiss would never know.

But maybe...

 _Enough._

She pressed send.

Now all she had left to do was complete Ruby's secret mission.

* * *

"We should go in," Blake said and removed her bow.

"Finally."

"I didn't know you were this eager." Blake said too quietly for him to hear.

They came out of their hideout and walked up to the door.

"Are you two here for the first time?" The doorman asked.

"Yes. We heard from a friend that this is where we should come if we need help."

"I don't know what kind of help you need, but we can keep you safe." He said and gave them two masks.

Blake put hers on without hesitation, while Sun started at it for a long time before finally doing the same. The doorman tsk-ed impatiently.

"I can see you're a little hesitant. Come on in and if you don't like it you don't have to come back." He said and waved for them to go in.

"That was really scary," Sun whispered to Blake as soon as they were in. "I thought I blew it."

"It went as well as it could have. He's probably suspects us a little, but he also remembers us. It could come in handy for future infiltrations.

"Future infiltrations? We're going to do this again?"

"You don't have to. As far as getting through the door is concerned, it would be better if only one of us comes the next type."

"I don't understand."

"You're playing the hesitant recruit while I'm playing the eager one. Our made up backstories work better if only one of us comes back. If I do, I'll tell them you abandoned me and they're the only ones I can turn to. If you do, you tell them I'm dead and you want to get revenge or something equally stupid. They'll eat it up."

"How do you know?"

"I was a recruiter for a while. Now shut up, something's happening."

In front of the crowd of potential recruits there was a stage and on the stage, a human walked out.

Well, to be more accurate, Roman Torchwick, the person she was after, walked out.

He started off a speech, but Blake wasn't listening.

"The mission has changed," she whispered to Sun. "We capture him and get out."

"Uh, Blake, I don't think that's a good idea. We are pretty much inside the hornet's nest right now. Shouldn't we be thinking of how we're going to get away?"

"And have him chase us? That's a great idea." She took out one of her blades and transformed it into submachine gun mode silently.

"Blake... Let's not do anything hasty," Sun said.

"Just get ready to run." She said and raised the gun.

Just before she pulled the trigger, Torchwick pulled a curtain down and revealed something that looked like a robot.

Sun was starting to walk towards the exit. "Correction," Blake said. "Get ready to run like hell."

She pulled the trigger and bullets went everywhere. She threw her sheathe up and used it to climb to the roof, while at the same time shooting at all the lights she could see.

After all, Roman Torchwick couldn't see in the dark.

She aimed very carefully and hit him in the shoulder while he was climbing into the strange robot. Was it something that could be controlled from the inside?

Lights flared up from it and shone on her position. Time to go.

Blake jumped towards the nearest window and when she was about halfway there, she materialized a clone which she used as a platform to jump again and reach it.

She crashed through, her aura shining from the many glass shards trying to impale themselves into her skin.

Sun was standing outside waiting for her. At the same time, the robot with Torchwick inside crashed through the wall.

"RUN!" she yelled as she grabbed him and dragged him with her until he started running on his own.

"This is bad," he yelled. "We could barely take him before. Now we don't stand a chance."

As if to confirm his words, Blake heard the sound of missiles being fired behind them. She shot behind herself blindly, hoping she would get lucky and hit one.

"I'm hoping you have some bright idea," Sun yelled, while doing the same.

"I do. Cover me while I call for backup," Blake said.

Sun didn't say a thing, he just stopped moving and stood his ground.

Blake didn't look back, she put her weapon away, took her scroll out and dialed her leader.

* * *

Ruby answered her scroll immediately when she saw that it was Blake calling her. Everyone else had already reported to her, so this would mean that the mission was either over, or something had gone wrong.

The sound of gunshots and explosions as soon as the call connected told her the second option was more likely.

"We're in trouble," Blake said. "Follow the sounds of explosions to get to us."

"It sounds like you're fighting an army," Ruby said.

"Something like that. I have to go, Sun looks like he's starting to get tired holding it off." The call disconnected. She could have at least said what they were fighting against. It would have made coming up with a plan a lot easier.

She dialed Weiss and told her what Blake said and then did the same for Yang.

"We're on our way," Yang said and the sound of an engine being revved could be heard. "Race you there."

"You should know better than to try to race me sis. I'll give you a thirty second head start," Ruby said and started assembling her scythe. In retrospect, disassembling it and tinkering with it was probably not as great of an idea as she initially thought. It was a good way to spend the time in the café she chose, but it made her response time a little slower.

Well, not really, she thought as she tightened the last bolt. It took her less than thirty seconds after all. She was getting too good.

She gathered the rest of her stuff and shot out of the café.

Following the explosions was a pretty good clue, she thought as she raced through the streets, passing cars and jumping over junctions.

She found Blake and Sun easily. They were being followed by one of those piloted robot things she saw being showcased by those Atlesian soldiers. Why was something like that attacking them?

Well, she could find that out later.

Behind it, she could see in the distance that Weiss was catching up, using her glyphs to catapult herself through the air at speeds that could almost match Ruby's own.

For now, Ruby drew her scythe, shot past her allies and crashed the blade into the robot's feet with the full force of her speed behind her. The robot crashed into the ground, tearing out a large piece of the road where it fell.

Just as it started to get up, a hail of ice spikes hit it from above, forcing it back down.

"Regroup," she yelled and fell back to Blake and Sun. Weiss joined them seconds later and a little after that Yang and Neptune finally arrived.

Neptune looked a little green. He clumsily stumbled off the bike and walked next to Sun.

"Hey man, I feel like we're in over our heads," he said.

"Tell me about it." Sun said.

In the meantime, Ruby was thinking.

"Here's the plan," she said. Everyone stopped joking around and looked at her. "Sun, Neptune, distract it. Blake, go ahead and set up a trap. That thing is top-heavy so use the same trick I did to stop it. Afterwards you and Yang engage it. Yang, we're going to need to use your semblance, as my cutting attacks had no effect. Blake, try attacking it with aura. That thing was made to fight Grimm, so it shouldn't have defenses against it. Weiss, with me. We're going to provide support from above and help them take it down. Got it?"

"Got it," she heard from five people.

"By the way," Neptune said. "Would you mind if I just destroyed it?"

"Go ahead. I won't be looking so feel free to use your semblance."

"Okay, here I go." He said and charged at the coming robot.

"We should go too," Ruby said and they all went to their positions.

She told Weiss where to make a glyph for them, grabbed her and jumped to it.

"Warn me next time," Weiss said, looking slightly flustered from suddenly being grabbed like that.

"Move the glyph as fast as you can ahead of it without knocking us off." Ruby commanded.

"Fine." The glyph started moving.

"I'll warn you next time."

"Thank you."

As the robot came, Ruby was not surprised to see that neither Sun nor Neptune were anywhere near it. Well, they probably didn't die. Probably.

They watched as Blake sprung the trap. The robot tried to jump over it, but failed to and crashed even more spectacularly than the last time. It rolled over and got back on its feet.

"Make some of those bullet enhancing glyphs in front of me, ice flavor," Ruby said and took out her rifle. "I would also appreciate a glyph behind me so the recoil doesn't blow me off."

"Done."

"Move us twelve meters to the right from the direction I'm facing and three meters up."

She felt the glyph move and lined up her shot just as Blake attacked.

The aura strike pierced through the metal, leaving a small opening for Ruby to shoot.

She aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. A small patch of ice appeared inside the robot, which then rapidly expanded, cracking the metal around it.

"A couple more of these and Yang should be able to take it apart," she said. "Move me exactly where I tell you and whatever you do, don't block any attacks aimed at Yang."

"Why not?"

"Forty-five degrees left, ten meters, maintain altitude."

The glyph moved accordingly. Blake managed to cut another hole in its armor and Ruby shot it. Now both of its arms were weakened.

In the meantime, whoever was piloting the robot must have realized that Yang was just standing in front of him doing nothing, so he attacked her. How very unwise.

"Why are you telling me not to defend her? She's just standing there. She's going to get hurt."

"Do you not know how her semblance works?"

"Fire, right? She hasn't explicitly told me, but that's what I gathered."

"Wrong," Ruby winced as she saw her sister get punched by a few tons of steel. "The more damage she takes, the stronger she becomes. The fire is a side effect from the energy transition."

They both watched Yang get up and punch one of the robot's arms off.

"Wow."

"Sixty degrees right, fifty meters, go down to ground level." She said when she saw that Blake was getting ready to attack.

Blake cut straight into the place where Ruby assumed the pilot would be. She deliberately aimed for the side, so that when Yang cracked it open, whoever was inside wouldn't get crushed.

* * *

Everything went according to plan, Blake thought.

She had to commend Ruby for coming up with something like that on the fly.

The front of the robot fell apart and her prize stood up, grabbing his cane. He seemed intent on fighting, but reconsidered when Ruby and Weiss landed.

"Damn Atlas. Can't do anything right."

"Hey!" Weiss said.

"What, princess, are you going to defend the people whose greatest accomplishment is a piece of junk that four girls on a stroll were able to tear apart with ease?"

"I'm more interested in how you got it," Blake stepped forward. "Or what you're doing with the White Fang," another step "or what you need all that dust for."

She was right in front of him. She was going to throw a punch at him when she felt something touch her head.

She looked up and saw a small girl with differently colored eyes that had tapped her with the end of an umbrella.

Before she had a chance to figure out what was going on, Yang appeared next to her and tried to tackle the girl.

The girl stepped out of the way as if she was dancing around her and Yang sailed past her and into what was left of the robot's arm.

Then a projectile from Roman's cane shot her.

When did she get up to where the girl was? What was going on? Was she losing her mind? She could swear that he hadn't moved a muscle since the girl arrived, but now he was on top of the remains of the robot.

"Why thanks for the assist, Neo," Roman said to his newly appeared companion. Then he turned to the girls "Ladies, as nice as all of this was, I think we'll be taking our leave now."

He tipped his hat and they both jumped down and started walking away from them.

"Of no you don't," Blake said and started to run after them.

"Blake, stop!"

"We have him. He's right there. Are you really going to let him walk away?"

"Think about this. Yang has taken a lot of damage and we can't just leave her behind to go chasing after him. We'd have to leave someone else with her. You had trouble against Roman when fighting with Sun two on one. There are two of them now. If we knew for sure that the boys are going to back us up, I'd say we go after them, but for all we know, they could have gone out for noodles right now!"

"Are we really going to let them go? After all that?" Blake asked, looking at them getting smaller and smaller in the distance.

"Blake... We're not letting them go..." Ruby said.

"They're letting us go." Weiss finished, having already guessed what her partner was thinking.


	9. Chapter 11 - The art of matchmaking

"Does your team know why you're here?" Ozpin asked. That was a strange way to ask if they were okay with Ruby possibly telling him everything.

"I am here to make an official statement about what happened last night." Ruby said. "In that official statement I will say that I have no idea what happened last night. It had nothing to do with us."

"And what about the unofficial statement?"

"Let's just say you may have some cover-ups to do."

He joined his hands at the fingertips in front of his face, elbows resting on his desk. "And what do I need to cover up?"

"A lot. The Atlesian manned robot thing that I found out is called a Paladin. They aren't supposed to be distributed yet, but the White Fang has at least one, possibly a lot more if want to believe what Roman said. You should probably talk to that general that's been hanging around here recently."

"Indeed I should. I'm assuming the Paladin was found by the police?"

"Probably, we didn't stick around long enough to find out. Also, tell him it's a little top-heavy."

"I will. Anything else?"

"I would also appreciate it if you made Yang take a health checkup. She was injured last night and while she insists she's fine, I sincerely doubt it."

"And so she will receive her checkup." He made a note and looked at her with expectation.

That was the point where Ruby wasn't sure if she should continue. After all, she had no concrete evidence yet. "Even if I don't tell you, you'll somehow know it the next time we speak. Should I even bother?"

"That is for you to decide."

"We may have a lead on where the White Fang are hiding. I heard that after the dance we will be going on a mission with an experienced hunter to oversee us. I don't suppose you could make it so that we stumble across their hiding place by accident, could you?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"I have my sources."

"Was it Port?"

 _Damn._ She nodded.

"You may need some more reliable sources. I planned on mixing up the teams for those missions in order to see how you work with people you aren't as comfortable with. I suppose that idea's going out the window now."

Ruby felt a little guilty. It was a really good idea. "Thank you, sir." She said in an apologetic tone.

"Please find where they are hiding before the actual missions. I would hate to act indecisive in front of my colleagues for no reason, or even worse, have to delay them."

"Blake is working on it as we speak. I would ask for her to be excused from classes, but I don't want the other students to become suspicious."

"I suppose students finding out about what she is working on would be problematic. I'll tell the teachers not to bother her so that she can spend her time in class resting."

"Thank you."

"Now, will that be all?"

"I can't think of anything else, so yes. For now."

"Good. I'm eagerly awaiting the results of your team's work. Contact me as soon as possible when it's done."

"Of course," Ruby said and left the room. Then she sat down on a bench for a couple of minutes.

That went as well as she could have hoped, but it was really exhausting.

* * *

Blake tried her best to tune out the commotion around her, but it was not easy.

Somehow, Weiss and Yang found out that they had a room designated for their work on the dance, so they chose to make it their base of operations.

They were arguing about tablecloths and it was giving her a headache.

She couldn't even pay attention to the information map she spent all of the last night updating.

"I'm leaving," she said and went for the door.

"Are we being a nuisance?" Weiss asked. "You probably don't want to listen to the two of us talking while you're trying to think."

"That's not it. I just need some fresh air." She lied. It would probably be for the best if she didn't say the truth.

She closed the door behind her and ran into Ruby.

"You should be in bed," Ruby said.

"Why?"

"You haven't slept for at least twenty-four hours. Probably twice that. Did you forget what I told you about taking care of yourself? Also, when did you last eat? You look like you could use some food."

"I can keep going. I just needed a little break."

"It's not about whether you can keep going, it's about being effective. You need sleep in order to be effective. Now stop complaining and go to bed. I'll tell the teachers you're sick."

Classes were going to start soon. That meant Weiss and Yang would go out of her room, Ruby would tell everyone she was sick and she could keep going.

"Okay." Ruby looked surprised at Blake's answer.

"That was easier than I expected."

"I can be reasonable. By the way, could you go and print out the rest of the things Weiss got me before classes in case I wake up early and get a chance to do something while you're still in class?"

"Sure..." There was a note of suspicion in her voice. "If you promise to really go sleep the last night off."

"I promise," Blake lied, crossing her fingers behind her back. It was childish and certainly not an excuse, but it made her feel better.

* * *

Yang heard the door open and looked around to see her sister come in.

"What are the two of you doing here?" She asked.

"Ruby, great timing." Weiss said. "Which color do you think looks better?" She presented her with two identical tablecloths.

"They look the same."

"Not you too. Why does no one in this school have an eye for detail?"

"Because most people aren't as anal about every little thing as you." Heh, anal. Yang fought to conceal her grin.

"Guys, why are you here?" Ruby asked again.

"We heard we're supposed to use this room as headquarters," Yang answered before Weiss could do something distracting again.

"Who told you that?"

"Goodwitch. She asked us why there are things everywhere in the classroom we were using when we have our own room."

"I swear that guy is a moron," Ruby said.

"Who?"

"Ozpin. This room is here so that Blake can work in it. The dance thing is a cover-up. Unfortunately, it looks like he didn't tell anyone that. Which means the teachers will make your life miserable or you'll have to figure out how to do this without Blake's work suffering from it."

Yang had been curious about why this room was so far away from the ballroom they were preparing.

"I think we can take the heat from the teachers," she said "If Weiss doesn't mind, I won't either. We'll figure something out."

"It'll be fine. I'll talk to them and explain the situation."

"You can hardly tell them that Blake is using the room to find the White Fang," Weiss chimed in.

"I'll think of something. Oh, and you should probably go to class. I don't want to be the only one of my team there." Ruby said and left.

"So all that time we spent carrying everything here..."

"We can do it after classes," Weiss said. "We should probably go."

"Yeah." Yang said. "I wonder if we're going to make it in time."

"For class? Or the dance?"

"The dance, obviously. Who cares about class?"

"I do. And we're nearly done. There's nothing to worry about."

"Maybe you are, but I still have some things I need to take care of."

"Do I want to know?"

"I don't know, do you?"

"No."

She walked out.

What a buzzkill.

Yang was about to go to class herself, when her scroll buzzed and she was informed that the nurse had requested to see her. Great.

* * *

For some reason, Yang could never really bring herself to like the Beacon nurse. She was a nice person and all, but something about her just rubbed her the wrong way.

As such, her stomach was in knots as she waited for her turn.

"Come on in," the nurse said as the poor soul before her exited.

Yang gathered up her courage and entered the beast's den.

"Why hello there Yang, it has certainly been a while since I last saw you," the nurse said. It had, in fact, not been a while.

Yang's semblance meant that she spent a lot of time in this woman's company.

"Why am I here," she asked.

"Professor Goodwitch told me that she noticed you wince while breathing in when she saw you earlier. She asked me to take a look."

Great. She had been hoping to not make a big deal out of it.

"Well, let me have a listen," the nurse said and brought a stethoscope out.

Yang took her shirt off and presented herself for examination.

Of course the nurse didn't need listen to her lungs because of the fact that the numerous bruises over Yang's ribs were clearly visible. Or was it all just one massive bruise?

"I think I found the problem."

"Really?" Yang bit her tongue before she could continue with her response.

"Well, I'm not completely sure, but there are strong signs telling me that you might have at least a couple of broken ribs, along with..." she took a closer look. "Something that hit you pretty hard right here." She hovered her hand over the spot where Roman shot her while she was down.

"I've had far worse," Yang said in an attempt to get herself out of what came next.

"Oh, I don't doubt that for a second, however I still have to make sure there's no internal bleeding. May I?"

Yang wanted to say no, but she had to nod. Internal bleeding always sounded scarier than a little pain.

The nurse ran her hands over her injury, probing and feeling around the area. Yang looked at herself in the nearby mirror, trying to use her red eyes to distract herself. It usually worked.

The nurse finished her examination and started writing something in a chart. "That looks like a gunshot that couldn't be completely stopped by your aura," she said. "You get those during training often enough, even if they usually aren't nearly as bad, I think you'll be fine. I'm more concerned with what managed to get your ribs in that state. Must have been one hell of a force to do something like that. Did you get hit by a car or something?"

"I was out drinking last night," Yang said. "Something might have crashed into me, but my memory's a little fuzzy." Technically, she didn't lie. She had drinks with Junior and her memory wasn't particularly good.

"Just to make sure, you were not riding your bike after drinking, right? Surely you know how dangerous that is. Maybe you would be fine, but you're not the only person on the streets."

"Of course I wasn't." That, on the other hand, was a lie. "What kind of person do you take me for?"

"Of course. Silly me, how could I ever consider such a thing." She marked something in the chart she was holding. She totally knew it was a lie. "Still, as your physician, I have to advise you against drinking so much that you start forgetting what you did. Once in a while is fine, but anything more than that I'll have to report it to my superiors."

"It's a once in a while thing," Yang said. "I got together with some friends from Patch who happened to be visiting and we got a little carried away."

"Indeed it looks like you did." She wrote something else in her chart before continuing. "You seem to be healing fine, but I think I'll bandage you up just to be sure you won't move something in the wrong direction. Do you want me to give you some painkillers?"

Yang considered it. Usually she refused instantly, but it didn't look like they would be in any fights soon. Still, she decided to refuse them. "I don't want to be weakened like that."

"Does it really weaken you? I thought all you did was absorb the power of attacks that hit you. Does that have anything to do with pain?"

Yang wondered if it was okay to reveal so much about the specific way her semblance worked. Probably. "Pain is a trigger. It's what gives me the ability to use the power I store up." Along with anger, but she wasn't going to reveal absolutely every aspect of her semblance to this woman all at once.

"The red eyes?"

"Yes."

"They are really unnerving," she said looking away from her. Yang quickly forced her eyes back to normal. "Well then I guess I'll bandage you up and send you on your way." The nurse said and took the bandages out and wrapped them tightly around Yang's torso. It hurt a lot more than Yang expected, but her chest hurt less when she tried to breathe in a little deeper.

"Thanks," she said. "Am I free to go?"

"Oh, my, you are always so eager to study. Most of the people in here are trying to get out of classes, but you're always out of here as soon as possible."

"You know me, I love studying." Yang said.

* * *

Blake carefully peeked around the corner to make sure no one was there.

"What are you doing in a place like this," she heard behind her and jumped up, making an undignified sound.

"Nya~~"

She turned around to see Nora.

"What are you doing here?"

"I asked first"

Blake wondered how to handle this. Nora was not an easy person for her to deal with.

"I have a secret mission."

"Ooh, me too."

"What's yours?"

"Well, I can't tell you. It's secret."

"I guess I can't tell you either, then," Blake said.

"Fair enough. We never met here." Nora said quietly and walked past Blake.

What was all of that about?

Blake continued to her room and stared hanging up all of the freshly printed graphs and maps and everything else Weiss had gotten her. It was pretty impressive that she managed to get this amount of information by making a single phone call.

Or maybe not, considering her father owned the company.

Blake stepped back and looked around. The walls were nearly covered in paper and now she had to connect everything together.

She started by studying the new things and then followed the ones she already knew to a place where something was missing. Then if she had the missing piece, she would connect it and continue.

* * *

"So, Ren, you and Nora will be going to the dance together, right?" Yang asked casually. She had just managed to get to class and did not have a lot of time left.

"I suppose. Unless she finds herself someone else."

"Don't say that. She would never abandon you like that."

"I suppose not. She is a good friend when it comes to things like that."

Yang wondered what it was that made the men of team JNPR unable to take a hint.

"So you'll be going as friends, then?"

"Of course."

"Well, at least you're going together," Yang said. "Jaune and Pyrrha aren't even doing that."

"Maybe you'll have better luck with them." Something sounded strange about that.

"Ren... You know exactly what we're talking about, don't you?"

"I don't think there exists a person unobservant enough to not get it."

"So why haven't you done anything about it?"

"About what?" Did he really not get it?

"About Nora, of course. What the hell do you think we were talking about?"

"What about Nora?"

"She likes you."

"I know. And that's all there is to it. She jokes and flirts, but she never outright stated that she wants to do something about it. Why should I do something about it when she's the one that likes me?"

"So you don't like her? Is that it?"

"I... don't really know."

"Ren, are you gay? That is the only logical explanation for why you aren't going out with her."

"What? No. At least I don't think so. It's just that I can't imagine the two of us together." Yang had heard that before, but it never really made sense to her.

"Yeah, I guess it would be difficult to see someone you've thought of as a friend your entire life as someone who could be your girlfriend. But even so, I think you should talk to her about it. Either you two get together, or you clear up the air and she stops suffering."

"Suffering? What do you mean?"

"Have you never been in love? Knowing that you love someone, but being afraid that they might not love you back is the worst feeling in the world." Yang turned towards Professor Peach to give him some time to think. She was teaching about some fungus that could be used as disinfectant on the field.

"What are you doing? Are you going to go around asking all of the potential couples in Beacon if they're going to the dance together?"

"It's not a successful party unless someone falls in love."

* * *

Cinder sat towards the back of Glynda Goodwitch's class with her subordinates, watching a mock fight. The fight ended and the teacher walked onto the stage to declare the victor.

"And there she is, Mrs. strongest semblance," she said, looking at Glynda asking for her next fighters. "Hahahaha what a joke. I wish she accepted challenges herself."

"You could always try to challenge her," Mercury said. "It would be like a rematch of that time you had to run away."

"And what, break our cover? Besides, she's a little too weak for me to fight seriously. I'm just mad that people consider her to be the person with the strongest semblance in all of Vale simply because of its versatility."

"I take it you don't think she has the strongest semblance?"

"Of course not. First off, you must have heard of the Mistral Witches. No one can compete with them, not even me. Second, she's type two. There's no way she could ever even come close to the power of type three."

"I've heard of the witches but I've never heard of semblance types." Emerald said. She seemed very interested.

"I guess you wouldn't know about that. It is a rather worthless field of study, after all."

"Why? I think semblances are very important."

"And you are correct in thinking that, however, they are what they are. Studying them is a waste of time because it's impossible to replicate them, just like aura. But let's get back to types. I don't want to discuss the importance of semblance research because there's no such thing."

"Right, I guess that would be more useful," Emerald agreed. How would she know if it was going to be useful if she had no idea what Cinder was going to tell her?

"While there are hundreds of subcategories of semblances, there are only three main types." Cinder said. "Type one are creation semblances. Those are the most varied. They are also relatively rare. Weiss Schnee is a good example of a very strong type one semblance."

"That girl? She doesn't look so tough."

"Shut up Mercury," Emerald said so quickly it was almost like a reflex.

"She probably isn't," Cinder said. "Type one semblances are very flashy and interesting. Their users can often use them to accomplish nearly anything they can imagine. However, when it comes to raw power, they are generally the weakest."

"That makes sense. A lot of adaptability instead of power. I can dig it." Mercury put his feet up on the railing, ignoring the teacher's glare.

"Yes, that's a good way to sum it up. Anyway, type two are manipulation semblances. Those make up the bulk of the more common semblance categories. Of course they aren't nearly as varied as type one, but they are more common, meaning that more of them have been documented. A good example is Glynda Goodwitch with her telekinesis. Another would be the two of you."

"Huh, is that so? Mine doesn't manipulate anything though." Mercury said. He scratched his chin in thought.

"Sure it does. Your own body is affected by it, right? So you have a type two semblance in the Biological category, more specifically, in the self-buff subcategory."

"Oh, that makes sense. Are there any categories for type one semblances?"

"Not to the point where you could trust them. As far as I know, every type one semblance is completely different from any other. They may look similar, or work similarly, but they are never exactly the same."

"But they're weak, so it doesn't matter."

"Underestimating someone with a type one semblance is a very good way to get yourself killed. For example, look at Schnee. You could charge at her, expecting her to block with a glyph, but instead, she uses one to throw you into the air, where she traps you in place and executes you."

Mercury looked in the direction of Weiss Schnee and laughed. "Scary. I'd better stay out of her way."

"Please continue," Emerald tried to get the conversation back on track.

"Right. Well, I guess I should move on to type three. Those are destruction semblances. The strongest and also the rarest. They are powerful enough to change the terrain in the area they are being used. Some say they could be strong enough to break a moon."

"Whoa, is that what happened to the moon? I never knew." A voice behind them said. They turned around to see Beacon student Ruby Rose had been sitting behind them the entire time.

"Probably not, but you can never rule it out," Cinder said without missing a beat. After all, she had been aware of her ever since she came over.

"My sister can use fire. Does that mean she could get that strong?"

"It's probably a manipulation semblance. Destruction semblances are something of a legend. Supposedly the bloodlines that carried them were destroyed by natural selection because they didn't want to dilute their purely destructive powers. As such most of them died out and the rest mixed with other types and eventually disappeared as well. It's still a good theory for how humanity survived before the discovery of dust."

"Wow, you know a lot. You should be a teacher."

"Thank you, but I'm not even a huntress yet. It's way too early for me to retire."

The girl failed to notice the insult towards all of her teachers.

"Wait, what you said would mean that semblances are genetically given. I thought they were a manifestation of the soul and any one person can have any one semblance."

"Well that's obviously the case now that our blood is mixed together, but you can still notice that children often have similar semblances to at least one of their parents."

"But that could be because they were raised by them, right?"

"Correct. No one really knows if it is because of genetics or upbringing that a semblance is what it is. If I had to guess, I would say both. Would you like an example?"

"Of course," the girl squealed in delight.

"Mercury, go pick a fight with the "untouchable girl" over there."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"Fine." He put his hand up and requested the match. Goodwitch was reluctant to have one of her best fight for the second time in a row, but Miss Nikos was nice enough to agree.

The first scuffle was what could be expected. Short and to the point. Mercury attacked twice before letting himself get countered.

"You can see it, right?" Cinder asked. "The subtle manipulations?"

"Of course. Once you know what you're looking for it's completely obvious. How did you know?"

"I saw it just now."

"That's pretty impressive."

"Not really. You just have to pay attention and people will reveal themselves to you." This got a little more philosophical than Cinder intended. "Anyway, back to my point. The ability to control magnetism has been around for a very long time and can you guess who is descended from a line of people famous for it?"

"No way. So you did know beforehand."

"No, I suspected. And researched. But that's beside the point. What I'm trying to tell you is that the Nikos family is known for having the ability to do strange things to metal. Pyrrha Nikos clearly inherited that ability, but look at what she's doing with it."

"What, she's moving metal. That's what magnets do."

"Is it really? Can a magnet move precisely enough that not even the person she's fighting would notice? That nobody watching would notice? Her family can throw steel with their minds, but that's the most they can do. She can manipulate it as delicately as if she were touching it. This isn't even polarity anymore. It's magnetic manipulation."

"Is there a difference?"

"Polarity is the ability to create magnetic fields, type one. Magnetic manipulation is the ability to create, control and manipulate magnetism, a type two semblance with type one roots."

Ruby looked carefully as Mercury kicked at Pyrrha, but at the last second she managed to get out of the way.

"She pulled her own armor out of the way," she said.

"Yes. Without throwing herself across the room, which is what would have happened if a polarity user tried it."

"I agree with you, but I don't get it," Emerald said. How does that even work? "Is it a difference in the amount of control she has?"

Cinder buried her head in her hands. That was why she wasn't a teacher. "It's a conceptual difference. It's an ability to do with magnetism, but completely different. It's like comparing throwing a bomb to firing a gun."

"I get it," Ruby said. "She can do more things to and with magnets."

"Yes... I guess."

"So her semblance is both something she inherited from her genes, but also something completely different."

"Almost correct. I imagine something happened to her that gave her the desire to have absolute control, maybe not specifically over magnetism. Or it could have been a random mutation. I doubt anyone, even she, knows"

Mercury returned after having surrendered.

"What, couldn't keep up with her?" Emerald said.

"I can't fight if I can't make contact with her and I can't do that unless I take off all the metal on me, which we all know isn't happening." He explained. Or more like whined.

"Mercury, you weren't supposed to win. We stand out enough as it is."

"Do you guys want to keep to yourselves or something?" Ruby asked. "If so I'm sorry for intruding, I was bored and you were having an interesting conversation." How cute of her to worry about something like that.

"No, we just don't want to get ourselves involved in any unnecessary drama, which would have happened if this guy beat the school idol." She patted Mercury on the back.

"I guess that makes sense," she said. Then she looked back and saw that Goodwitch was glaring at her. "I have to go back to my seat," she apologized. "See you guys around."

"See you," Emerald said.

Mercury was still sulking.

"Don't hesitate to pay us a visit whenever you want," Cinder said in the friendliest tone she could manage.

"Why do I get the feeling that girl likes to poke her nose into everything?" Mercury asked once the girl in question was out of earshot.

"Nothing wrong with being curious," Cinder said. "As long as she doesn't get too curious."

* * *

Yang was a woman with a mission. Her mission: to find Jaune Arc and force him to ask Pyrrha out to the dance.

The only problem with that was that they seemed to be joined at the hip lately.

Normally, that would mean that things were going in her favor, however they seemed to do nothing but train. They even took showers together after training, but all they would talk about in there was fighting.

Oh, well, maybe things would work out if she let them. In the meantime, she concentrated on not dropping the speaker she was carrying.

"It took you a lot longer than I thought it would," Weiss noted when she returned to their base of operations in [location redacted].

"I've been thinking about things," Yang said. "Hey Weiss, you don't like like Jaune, right?"

"Have you not noticed the way I treat him? He doesn't even seem to want to talk to me anymore."

"To be fair, that could have been you trying to display affection."

"Yang, I'm pretty sure that repeatedly telling someone I don't like them doesn't mean I like them."

There was no arguing with that. "Great, so you won't get in the way."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm trying to get Pyrrha and Jaune to go to the dance together."

"Why?"

"Because they're so perfect together. Just imagine it."

"I'd rather not. Anyway, that's not what I was asking. Why are you trying to get them to go together?"

"Because no one else seems to want to give them the push they obviously need."

"Have you ever thought it might be better if you didn't poke your head into other people's business? There could be a valid reason as to why the two of them aren't dating."

"Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. I don't think there's anything wrong with helping them understand their feelings."

"Yang... Jaune doesn't really like Pyrrha. She's been helping him out ever since he came to Beacon. He sees her as a mother figure rather than a girl his age."

Yang sat down next to Weiss. "I think you could be right." She said. "What do we do to make him see her as a girl?"

"Nothing," Weiss said. "Jaune has an Oedipus complex so he could fall for her any second." It took Yang a second to realize that her teammate had said something outrageous.

"Wait, WHAT?"

"You heard me. It's painfully obvious, especially considering most people have one."

"...They do?"

"Yes. It's an evolutionary trait. Children need to stay close to their parents in order to avoid an untimely death."

"There's a slight difference between staying close to your parents and having romantic feelings for them."

"Love is the best way to make sure of it. In fact, it is the only foolproof form of attraction people feel for each other. This is grade school psychology, Yang."

"I don't know what grade school you went to... Anyway, if what I managed to gather from our current discussion is correct, then I don't need to do anything?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, if you say so." Since they were pretty much done, Yang turned around to leave.

A small hand grabbed her sleeve.

"By the way," Weiss started but stopped halfway through.

"Yes?"

"Never mind. It's stupid." She let go.

"Now I really want to know." Yang walked up to her and looked her straight in the eyes until she gave in.

"Well, seeing as how for some reason you're trying to set people up for the dance..." She stopped.

"Go on..."

"Well, I was wondering, could you maybe... help me figure out how to ask Neptune to come with me?"

Yang didn't know which was more surprising, the fact that the Ice Queen showed interest in a boy, or her choice.

"I can do that," she said. "But first I want to know why."

"Because you owe me."

"Just what do I owe you?"

"That one time I acted like a bitch in front of you and Blake, allowing you to bond over it."

"How does that translate into me owing you anything?"

"Because I helped you form a closer bond with your partner. But that's beside the point. Will you help me or what?"

"Why?"

"Because I have no one I else I can ask. Ruby's chatting up the transfer students. Blake is doing something we're not supposed to talk about and you're shoving your nose in other people's relationships. I figured I could ask you."

"I don't care about your motivations. I'm asking why Neptune and why now?"

"Why not?"

"I'm asking you why you want to date a guy and your answer is "Why not"?"

"Well, he seems nice. I don't really know him, so I thought I could learn more about him at the dance."

"Why do I get the feeling you're doing this out of curiosity rather than actual feelings for him?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I don't want you to get into a relationship with a guy you're going to dump the moment you get bored of."

"I most certainly will not."

"So what if you don't? You know that Sun and Neptune are going back to Haven after the tournament. Imagine you fall in love with him. How are you going to deal with the break-up?"

Weiss opened her mouth to speak, closed it and then opened it again. "How are you the one that thinks further ahead than me?"

"Experience mostly. Now ask yourself if you're ready to go through the heartbreak of being separated and if you are, then I'll help you."

"I'll ask him to come with me as a friend," she said. "There, happy now?"

"Not really. So, what's the problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you asking me how to ask him out?"

"Because I've never done it before." That was all too unsurprising.

"Hi, do you want to go to the dance with me?" Yang said. "That's all there is to it."

"Isn't that a little too simple? What if he thinks I'm asking the first person I met?"

"You pretty much are. Besides, a girl asking a guy is pretty unusual. There's no way he's going to say no."

Weiss looked at her suspiciously.

"What, it's true. No one's going to ask you, other than Jaune, because they feel intimidated by you. If you go out and ask someone there's no way they'll refuse."

"I think I'll try," she said after careful consideration.

Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Weiss probably wasn't going to fall in love, but at least there was going to be some romance at the dance.

* * *

"I hate you," Weiss said again.

"Look, how was I to know he would say no? I did the best I could." Yang tried to excuse herself.

"I really hate you."

The door opened and Ruby finally arrived to the room. Yang looked hopeful, as if her sister was going to somehow make the situation any better.

"I really, really, really, reeeaaaaally hate you, Yang Xiao-Long," Weiss said and lay back on her bed.

"What did the two of you do now?" Ruby asked in a voice that clearly said that she did not want to deal with them. Weiss decided to let Yang explain.

"She asked a boy out, but he rejected her and now she's taking it out on me."

"Not true," Weiss said. "I clearly recall you telling me that there was no way he would say no."

"Did you ask Yang what to do?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah" Yang said. "I told her to go up to him and ask him out. That's it."

"Sounds good."

"Yeah, you don't get a say in this, miss no social skills."

"Hey, I'll have you know I just spent the afternoon with those new students from Haven and we had a lot of fun."

"Are you going to the dance with them?"

"What? No, of course not. Why would I?"

"Then you didn't ask them out, which means that I can completely disregard your opinion." Weiss rolled over on her stomach. "I think I'm going to sleep. Sleep is nice."

"I swear, that girl is like a minefield," Yang muttered under her breath.

"Let's let her rest for now," Ruby said gently. They both left.

They probably wanted to give her some privacy if she wanted to cry. How nice of them, but it wasn't necessary. Weiss Schnee was not one to cry because of something like this.

* * *

Blake heard a knock on the door. Who could it be? One of her team? They had access, so why would they knock?"

"It's me," she heard Sun say.

"What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd drop by, see how you're doing," he said. "You wanna let me in?"

"Not particularly," Blake said.

"Why not?"

"I'll tell you if you answer a question first. What did you do in the fight last night?"

"What do you mean? We were supposed to distract that... thing, so we did exactly that."

"From where I was looking it looked like you got knocked off the road and didn't bother getting back on."

"I'm feeling a little hostility here," Sun said. "That thing was tough. We didn't stand a chance and you had an ambush ready. It would have been stupid for us to keep fighting it."

"So if the battle went badly for us you were going to leave us to die?"

"Well you obviously weren't going to lose. I mean, you had a great plan and you were executing it well. We thought we would only get in the way."

"You were wrong. We did lose. Badly. I had to pretty much carry Yang back here. The only reason why all of us made it was because our enemies were feeling merciful. So no, I'm not going to open the damn door."

Blake walked away and looked back to her information network.

She couldn't concentrate. She couldn't even force herself to read it.

She punched one of the desks, breaking it in half.

Goodwitch could always repair it with her semblance.

Thinking that, she broke a few more before returning to work.

* * *

Yang left the team's room in search of Blake. Her bed had obviously not been slept in and she was sure she knew where she was going to find her.

When she approached the classroom that Blake had formed her ball of yarn in, she hesitated. This was something pretty big after all. Ruby was involved and so was Weiss and probably a lot more people could be affected by it. Including the White Fang.

Was it really her place to interfere?

Then she remembered the dark rings under Blake's eyes the last time she saw her and imagined how bad they would be by now.

If no one else was going to, she was going to have to take care of her.

She slammed the door open to find that the room looked nothing like it did the last time she was there.

Blake was sitting cross-legged on a mountain of broken chairs and desks.

It was also pitch black to the point where she could barely make out her outline.

"Could you shut the door? The light's giving me a headache," Blake said in a low, raspy voice.

Yang shut the door behind her and turned the lights on.

Blake hissed almost like she was in pain and started climbing down her mountain. It wasn't easy for her. She was swaying back and forth, obviously struggling to keep her balance.

"What did you do that for?"

"So that I can see you," Yang said. Maybe it would have been better if she left them off. Blake looked like something straight out of a horror film. Eyes sunken into her head, gray skin, chapped lips, wincing at the light... Yep, definitely something out of a horror film.

Blake tried to get past her and turn the lights off, but Yang stood in her way. "You need to stop. This is too much. You'll die at this rate."

"No, I won't. I'm fine. Leave me alone, I have work to do."

"I can't do that. Just look at yourself. You're obsessed with this and it's going to eat you up from the inside."

Blake looked like she wanted to push her partner out of the way, but instead chose to speak. "You don't get it, do you? The White Fang have enough dust to make bombs that could take out entire buildings. Thousands of people could die. I have to find them before they can do it."

"No, you don't understand. The fact that a lot of people could die won't change because you kill yourself in this room. If you haven't found them by now, you're not going to, at least not like this. And even if you do, what are you going to do about it? The way you are now, no one would take anything you have to say seriously."

"Ruby will. She's the one that told me to do this."

"Do you really think that even Ruby will listen to you if you're half-mad with dementia from lack of sleep? How do you think she's going to listen when you won't even be able to talk coherently in a few hours?"

"Then I'll have to find them before that," she said and turned around, looking from wall to wall, looking like she was hoping for a miracle.

"Blake, listen, you have to realize that you can't keep going like this. You're putting yourself in danger and if we get in a fight with you like this you'll be putting us in danger."

"What do you expect me to do? Give up?" Blake yelled.

"You know, I was like that a long time ago. You see, my mother left me a little after I was born. I don't know a thing about her. I don't even know what she looks like, except for a picture from seventeen years ago."

"What does this have to do with anything," Blake interrupted.

"I'm getting to that. Now listen. After Summer, Ruby's mom, died, I thought that maybe I could find my real mother. So I went searching for her. I went to such great lengths searching for her that both Ruby and I nearly died because of it. The only reason why we didn't, was because of luck. That was when I learned that throwing my life away isn't the answer."

"So what, you think that it's okay for me to give up on all of those people that could die because of me? Because of my mistake last night?"

"I'm not telling you that. I'm telling you that killing yourself isn't the answer. Find them or don't, but take care of yourself first. You can't save anyone if you're dead."

Blake sat down at the bottom of the pile of broken wood and metal. It looked like even standing was hard for her.

"But what if I can't do it? What if I rest and then there isn't enough time for me to find them?"

Yang wondered how to phrase her response in a way that wouldn't be hurtful. "Then that's okay. There are some things that can't be done. We couldn't have won last night, so you shouldn't beat yourself up over it. If it turns out you can't find the White Fang, then that's that. It's unfortunate, but we'll just have to deal with them whenever they emerge with their plan and stop them then." She took a breath. "You're not infallible. You're not omnipotent. You're just a teenage girl. You can't blame yourself for not being able to do what is impossible for you."

"What if it isn't impossible? What if all it takes is another day of this?" She was holding her head in her hands, as if fighting back a headache. Considering her state, it was very likely that was exactly what was going on.

"You heard Ruby. You are far more likely to solve it if you're working at one hundred percent. I agree with her."

Blake looked ahead blankly.

"Get. Some. Rest. Then come to the damn party." Yang said.

"I don't see what the party has to do with anything."

"It's a distraction. It'll force you to think about something else for a couple of hours and when you come back to this, you'll be able to look at it with a different viewpoint."

"I don't have time for a dance. I have to figure this out as soon as I possibly can."

"If you tell me that you honestly think that spending another, what, twenty-four hours or so staring at this wall is going to give you the answer, I will leave you alone."

"It will."

Yang had to hold herself back from punching something. "Fine. On your head be it."

Yang slammed the door shut on her way out.

"It will." Blake repeated. "It has to."


	10. Chapter 12 - The peaceful day

When she woke up, Yang was very happy to find that Blake was sleeping in her bed. She quietly woke Ruby and Weiss and after they all went through the bathroom and looker reasonably ready for the day, they grouped up outside of their dorm.

"I actually got through to her," Yang squealed in delight. "She listened to me and now she's resting. I just have to get her to the dance and everything will be perfect."

"Not everything," Weiss said. "We still don't know where or how to find the White Fang and even if we do, we don't have a way of stopping them."

"Actually, we do," Ruby said. "At least about that last part. I probably shouldn't say too much until Blake finds something. I wouldn't want to get your hopes up."

"What kind of reasoning is that?" Weiss objected.

"She doesn't want to look stupid when nothing happens," Yang said. "Besides, we shouldn't have that conversation without Blake."

When neither of them objected, Yang decided to continue with their plans for the day.

"Okay, first off, Ruby, you don't have a date for the dance and that's a good thing. Most of the boys here are too old for you."

"Yaang, come on. That's not fair."

"No, it isn't. Deal with it. Weiss, we still have to get you a date." Yang quickly changed the subject before Ruby could threaten her with telling their dad about that thing that shall never be spoken of.

"I don't want one," Weiss said. "I think I'll go to Blake's room and see if I can spot anything she missed."

Something about that gave Yang a bad feeling. "You really shouldn't. After she spent all of that time and effort into it, how do you think she'll feel if you find something before she can?"

"I think she would understand that it was only possible because of her hard work."

"I don't think it's a good idea," Yang insisted.

"Well the other two ideas are to do nothing and waste what little time we have left, or to try to cover it up and leave her breadcrumbs to find, which if she notices would be ten times worse. That is assuming I find something, of course, which is extremely unlikely. Mostly I'm just curious."

Yang didn't want to argue with her, so she decided to let it go. "What about you?" she asked Ruby.

"I think I'll go have a look as well," she said. "I helped her set everything up in the beginning, so I want to see what it looks like now."

Yang wanted to come up with some reason why she couldn't go with them. Other than the fact that she felt physically ill when she even thought of that room, of course.

"Well, then I still have some homework left from two weeks ago that Goodwitch still asks me about every time before class, so I think I'll go do it."

Ruby and Weiss shared a look.

"How is it that out of the four of us, you have the best grades?" Weiss asked.

"Because I, unlike the three of you, actually graduated an Academy." Yang said proudly.

"Well I suppose there are some disadvantages to being so talented you have to be moved up two years, or being me," Weiss said smugly.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know how great you are. See you guys around." Yang said and ducked back into the dorm pretending to grab her books.

* * *

"This place is... strange," Weiss said as she made her way through the room, trying not to step on anything. I proved to be more of a challenge than she would have thought, as the floor was littered with papers, wood and metal from the broken furniture and a very large number of thumbtacks.

Coupled with the fact that there were many strings connecting things from one side of the room to the other, almost like a spiderweb, it looked like a room someone had set up as a challenge.

"Do you think we'll win something if we get to the other side?" Weiss asked.

"Pull up the blinds and open all of the windows," Ruby said as she danced through the strings like a ballerina. She was supposed to be a complete klutz, so why did she have such amazing coordination and balance?

"I did not know you could move like that," Weiss said.

"This is nothing. When you're moving at the speeds I usually move, you need to be able to balance yourself properly, or you end up crashing into pretty much everything." Ah, that sounded a lot more like her.

"So why don't you move more slowly like you are now? You wouldn't crash into things as much."

"My speed is my one edge in a fight. I have to do all I can to keep it honed. Now are you going to help, or are you going to just stand there and watch me do all the work?" She opened a window and scaled the wall to the next one.

Weiss, rather than to show herself in some rather ungraceful poses, chose to lift herself up with a glyph and travel over the obstacles.

"That's not fair."

"It's my semblance. If it isn't fair than you shouldn't use anything you got because of yours."

"I know, I know. I was joking. I'm also really jealous you came up with it."

Weiss couldn't help smiling at that.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Except for the fact that I wasn't the one to come up with it. You were."

"I was?"

"The fight against the Paladin."

"Wait, how does that work? I got the idea from the way you were flying through the air when you got there."

"That wasn't flying. That was catapulting. Huge difference." Weiss said as she opened the last window. The rays of sun coming into the room were visible, reflected by the large amount of dust that had managed to gather. It was probably because of Blake breaking all the desks and chairs.

"She must have been pretty frustrated to do all that," Ruby said, probably thinking the same thing.

"Stress can make you do weird things," Weiss said and finally examined the walls. The first thing that caught her eye was the large map made up of a lot of maps taped together. "She divided the city and all the territory around it into districts."

"That's not the map I got her," Ruby said, examining it closely. "It looks like she exchanged it for a bigger one."

"Oh," Weiss said as she continued looking at it. "I have no idea what I'm looking at," she finally admitted.

"Me neither. I don't think anyone other than Blake will be able to decode it without spending weeks to do it."

"Encoding by complexity..." Weiss said before she managed to catch herself thinking out loud.

"How do you think encoding works?"

"Obscurity. If I had enough time to study it, I would understand it."

"Will you?" Ruby asked doubtfully.

"Probably," Weiss said. "For example, look at the way all these dust robberies are timed exactly five days apart. What is more, the amounts stolen are almost the same."

"That was how I found Torchwick the first time," Ruby said. "Timing and location fit only a few stores he could hit and I saw some suspicious people in front of one when I was patrolling them."

"You had way too much time on your hands," Weiss said. "But it still makes me wonder what they're trying to do with all that dust. That train cart the White Fang highjacked would have covered their needs for months."

After saying that, Weiss went deep into thought. Ruby wondered if she should disturb her and finally touched her shoulder.

"I've gotten everything I can from this room," Weiss said almost as if she was talking to herself. "The answer is in there. Blake just has to find it."

"Did you find it?" Ruby asked.

"I found something," Weiss said. "But I doubt it would help you."

Weiss helped Ruby climb onto the glyph and took them back to the entrance.

"So, what now, are you going to go hang out with your new friends?" she asked.

"Nah, I think I've had enough of them for now. That girl is just too much for me to handle two days in a row."

"Why? She looks nice enough."

"I don't know, talking to her exhausts me almost as much as talking to Ozpin. Or you." Was that supposed to be a compliment?

"So, are we going to lounge around all day while Blake nearly overworks herself to death?"

"That depends," Ruby turned around with a smile. "What do you want to do?"

* * *

The thing that woke Blake was the smell of food. Did food always smell that good?

Actually, it was lots of smells belonging to different foods. She didn't know where to start with naming them, except with getting out of bed and seeing them for herself.

"Blakey-Blakey, wakey-wakey," she heard Yang say right in front of her face.

"I will punch you into the next room," Blake said, opening one eye.

"Now, is that any way to treat the teammate that got you breakfast?"

"Do you have to be ten centimeters away from my face?"

"Yes. Now, first you're going to eat, then you're going to shower and then we have to get you a date for the dance."

"I agree with the first two," Blake said and pushed herself up. Why did her body hurt so much?

"How do you feel?" Yang asked.

"Not so great. Can you get me some water?"

"Sure," she said and handed her a glass. "Drink it slowly."

Right. She didn't want to start throwing up, so she gulped down just a little and set the glass aside.

"Now for a little food," Yang said and gave her a bit of pancake on the end of a fork.

It was delicious.

"I can feed myself," Blake said and went to examine the food.

"Just don't eat too fast," Yang warned her.

"I've been a lot more starved before," Blake said while shoveling food into her mouth. "I know my limits."

"If you say so..." Yang said, sitting down and putting her feet up, watching Blake eat.

When Blake felt the slightest heaviness in her stomach, she stopped eating and drank some water. Soon she managed to finish all of the food.

"I did not think you could eat all that," Yang said. "And keep it down, of course."

"When you don't know if you'll be starving for the next week, you learn to eat a lot while you can."

"Life with the White Fang must have been really tough," Yang said. "I didn't think anyone in Vale still suffered from shortage of food."

"A lot of us choose to live outside the walls," Blake said. "Back then hunting was the main way to get real food on the table and our hunters barely managed to catch enough for all of us. Sometimes they didn't bring anything back and the Grimm never stopped attacking."

"Why did you live out there?"

"Because it was just as hard for faunus to survive in the city. I doubt you noticed what it was like back then, but things were a lot worse. Finding someone who would hire a faunus was hard enough, but someone who would hire hundreds? Impossible. At least outside the city we stood a chance."

Yang looked genuinely surprised at her words. "I spent most of my life on Patch, so I can't say about Vale, but no one really discriminated against faunus there. Not that I recall, anyway."

"And how many faunus did you know on Patch," Blake asked, even though she probably shouldn't have.

Yang didn't respond.

"I'll go ahead and take a shower," Blake said and started walking when a hand stopped her.

"Promise not to climb out the window," Yang said.

"Why would I do that? I've accepted that you're right, so I have no reason to run."

"Just do it."

"...I promise not to climb out the window. Happy?"

"Or jump."

"...I promise not to escape in any way out of the bathroom window."

Yang finally released her. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to have to have another conversation like last night's with you."

"I understand," Blake said, even though she definitely did not.

"Okay. I'll wait out here."

* * *

After they left Blake's room, Ruby and Weiss went to the cafeteria to get some food and talked about the Weiss' top secret mission.

Ruby found out that it had gone as well as could be expected.

The rest of the meal went by in mindless banter and they found that they didn't know what to do with themselves.

"You know, most of the people around here would be so excited for the dance that they couldn't imagine the two of us sitting around doing nothing," Weiss said.

As if to prove her point, a girl in a dress ran by them.

"I like to imagine we have bigger things to worry about," Ruby answered. "But that could just be me having delusions of grandeur."

"Well I, personally, am fond of the idea that we are both too socially handicapped to get dates."

"That sounds more plausible." Ruby agreed.

"Yeah." Weiss said, staring out into the distance.

"You know," Ruby said after a while. "Of all the people in Beacon, I never thought you would be the person to go to if you want to get high."

"I take it that means you like it?" Weiss looked a little too proud of herself.

"I think so. It is a little weird, though. And I'm hungry again." Ruby patted her belly. Good thing she couldn't get fat.

"I guess we could go get some food," Weiss said. "But I really don't want to eat it in the middle of the cafeteria."

"Are you paranoid that people will find out you've been smoking?"

Ruby thought the look on Weiss' face was hilarious. It clearly said that it was true, but she didn't want to admit it.

"Well with you grinning like an idiot how are they going to not notice," Weiss proclaimed. "You dunce."

"It's been a while since you last called me that," Ruby said thoughtfully. "I like it, I think."

"It's supposed to be an insult."

"Yes, but insults often become terms of endearment when used between friends."

"I guess." Weiss said.

Ruby wondered if she should finally bring up the thing she really wanted to talk about.

"You know, I'm really surprised you suggested this," she said. "After what you said about you and drugs."

Weiss looked away for a while. "I think it's okay, since I'm with you. Besides, there's a reason for this."

"Oh really? Will you tell me?"

"I guess." Weiss paused. "I say "I guess" too much."

Ruby laughed. Was Weiss really that self-conscious about the way she spoke?

Weiss looked a little offended. "Anyway, the reason why I wanted to do this. You know how marijuana makes you feel everything more... more, you know?"

Ruby knew exactly what Weiss meant. She could feel her blood rushing through her veins with every heartbeat. It was amazing.

"Well, that doesn't just work on our external senses. It also affects our emotions. If I wanted to sum up my motive for doing this, I would have to go with... Wanting to know how I feel when I spend time with you."

"That's flattering, Weiss. So, how do you feel?"

"I don't know." Was that it? Was Ruby supposed to accept that answer?

Her stomach growled. She also needed an excuse to get away from her teammate. "You know what, I'm going to make a run for it. I'll be in and out before they even notice it. You just wait here."

"You're going to run straight into a wall," Weiss called after her, but Ruby was already out of earshot.

* * *

Yang was surprised by how much better Blake looked when she came out of the shower. Her hair had regained some of its volume and beauty and her skin looked clean and healthy.

"You know," Yang said. "If your aura was any weaker you wouldn't have recovered nearly as easily."

"I know," Blake said. "That's why I can afford to push myself further than other people. But still, I agree that what I did the last few days was too much."

"Well my ribs also stopped hurting today, so team RWBY is officially back to full strength." Yang proclaimed, pumping her fist in the air "Time to get us some dates."

"Please, Yang, I don't want to think about a dance right now. I'm better, so I should go back and try to crack that thing before tomorrow."

Yang expected that reply and was completely prepared for it.

"Don't you think you could use a distraction? Something to change the way you think? What you were doing before clearly wasn't working, so how about you go to the dance and maybe inspiration will strike you."

"Yang, I can tell I'm close. There's something in the back of my mind struggling to get out but I can't make it out. I need to think about it."

Blake scratched her head, as if to force whatever idea she had out.

"You know what, I can't figure it out. A distraction might do me some good."

Yang looked at her partner in the eyes suspiciously.

"What?"

"I don't trust that you would change your mind so easily."

"I haven't really been to a dance before," Blake said, blushing. "Not one like this, anyway."

"You wanted to go all along?" Yang could barely contain her excitement. Actually scratch that, she definitely couldn't.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because you're you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" She sounded a little insulted.

"You aren't the most social of people."

"That doesn't mean I inherently dislike social gatherings."

"... Just forget I said anything."

Blake clearly wasn't about to forget about it, but she at least dropped the subject for now.

In Yang's experience, the best way to deal with something like that was to ignore it. "In any case, we have to get you a date. You and Sun get along well, so that part's easy. Just ask him out."

"That's not a good idea."

"Why not? He's into you. You don't hate him."

"He thinks I do," Blake said.

"What did you do to that poor boy?"

"Need I remind you that poor boy and his friend basically left us to die?" Well then. Yang thought they were done with the difficult conversations.

"I don't know what to say to that. Your view on the matter is a little different from mine. The way I see it, they're people we've known for about a week. Can you blame them for not wanting to risk their lives for people they've known less than a week?"

"Yes I can. They went on that mission with us. I suppose we should have warned them that it could be dangerous, but I guess all of us thought it was obvious. However, once you're out there, you're a part of the machine that is a team. If you take random parts out of the machine, it will stop working. It's common sense."

Yang wondered how she should respond. "Blake, we're all trainees. Not just them, but me, Ruby and Weiss too. We don't have your experience. We're just kids. The three of us can keep up with you because of our various circumstances, but most people you see on the street aren't ready to lay down their lives because they're told to."

Blake sat down, thinking about it. "They should. The Grimm could gather into a horde and drive us into extinction anytime." She paused. "But I see your point. People don't really think like that because of the way the cities work. Panic is kept to a minimum so people have developed a false sense of security. Of course they wouldn't be ready to lay down their lives at command. I may have been a little too harsh on him."

Yang chose not to say anything about the first part. It wasn't really a subject she was familiar with, so she thought it would be better to not to get into that kind of conversation. "What exactly did you say to him?"

"Something along the lines of "Why did you leave us to die?" or something."

Yang groaned. "Seriously. How am I supposed to deal with that? He's probably feeling too guilty to show his face."

"I don't really see the problem," Blake said. "He's going to learn from his mistakes and I don't really care if I have a date for the dance."

Yang reconsidered her position. Blake clearly didn't care about Sun, so maybe it would be better if she didn't push it.

"I guess we could go together," she said.

"You don't have a date?"

"Of course not. I am the puppet master, not one of the puppets." Yang said proudly. She had been looking for an excuse to say that for longer than she cared to admit.

"In other words, you were so busy trying to set people up that you completely forgot about getting a date for yourself, right?"

"Something like that."

* * *

Thankfully, Ruby and Weiss had almost come down from their blazing adventure in time for the dance. Going back to their room, they were surprised to find that Blake was also putting on a dress.

"Hey guys, check out my date," Yang said pointing at her partner.

Ruby and Weiss exchanged a look.

"Blake," Ruby started speaking. "I don't mean to question your judgement or anything, but do you have the time for this? The deadline is tonight. It's fine if you don't find anything, but I thought you would feel an obligation to after all the work you put in."

Yang looked ready to step in to defend her, but Blake chose to speak for herself.

"I know time is of the essence, but I've hit a wall I can't get through. Hopefully a change of pace will bring me some inspiration." She turned to look at Weiss, who had started changing into a dress. "By the way, Weiss, I have a feeling that something you said to me is important, but I can't remember exactly what."

Weiss froze with her hands holding the dress over her head. "We haven't had any real conversations about this since the first one, which started this entire thing. It could have been something from back then, or something you heard me say since, or something you remember me saying from even before that." She slipped the dress on.

"I know," Blake said. "I've been replaying our first conversation about it in my head, but the only thing that really relates to the problem is the possibility of the White Fang making bombs. I don't know if it has anything to do with that, but I know it's important."

"I don't think I can help you," Weiss said. "Contrary to popular belief, I don't record all of my conversations."

"Is there anyone that actually believes that?" Yang asked.

Weiss, looked around, her eyes settling on Ruby, as if asking her for help. When she saw that she would get none, she answered. "It was supposed to be a joke. You take everything way too seriously."

Yang marched right in front of her, grabbed her by the front of the dress and looked her straight in the eyes. "Who are you and what have you done with Weiss?"

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Weiss said, staring into Yang's eyes calmly.

"If you two are done joking around we should probably get going," Ruby announced. "After all, we wouldn't want to be late."

"Ruby, you wouldn't happen to have a date you don't want to keep waiting, would you?" Yang asked with a hint of threat in her voice.

"I might," Ruby admitted. "I'm not sure if they'll make it, though."

"Ruby, dear sister, you remember what I told you about dates, right?"

"Yang, my dear sister, you do remember about that thing you don't want dad to know about, right?"

Yang stumbled back, as if she got punched in the face. "Are you really going to threaten me?"

"You did it first when you "asked" me not to date anyone older than me."

"There's a reason for that. I'm your big sister and I'm trying to protect you."

"Yang, I have long since surpassed you as the mother of this team."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby saw Weiss and Blake slip out of the room. How wise of them.

"Oh yeah? Where were you last night when Blake was nearly out of her mind with fatigue? On your orders, I might add." Ruby didn't expect what was looking like a huge argument to start out of what she considered a joke. Maybe she really didn't want to know about whatever it was Yang wanted to keep secret.

"My orders to Blake were for her to take care of herself. Can we please not do this?"

"You started it."

"I know. I was wrong. My date is coming with me as a friend. I just wanted to tease you a little. I didn't expect you to be this jumpy about it. And I guess I got overly defensive afterwards."

"I guess I am a little jumpy," Yang said. "I think looking after Blake tired me out a lot more than I realized."

"I'm sorry," Ruby said.

"Me too," Yang said and wrapped her little sister into a hug. "Although if you ever get a real date, they have to pass my screening process first."

Minutes later the argument was completely forgotten.


	11. Chapter 13 - A night to remember

Team RWBY were the first at the dance. After all, they were supposed to greet everyone.

People started filing in soon after that.

A few minutes after the specified time for the start of the dance, Penny appeared, wearing a short sundress that suited her beautifully. She had two guards, along with General Ironwood himself escorting her.

"I'm going to go," Ruby said, well aware of the fact that Yang's eyes were all but drilling holes in the back of her neck. She should relax after seeing who her date was going to be.

"Hi, Penny," Ruby greeted her friend.

"Hello Ruby. I must say you look absolutely stunning today."

Ironwood quickly excused himself and went to talk to Ozpin. How predictable. The two soldiers, however, stayed with them.

"Thank you, although I feel like I'm going to break my neck in these heels. You look amazing. The cute look really suits you." Ruby said and watched to see if the guards would get bored with their conversation and leave. They didn't.

"I'm glad you like it," she said. "It only took me a few days to plan my outfit."

Ruby felt a little guilty that she wore the first dress she could find that fit her. "Well, let's go get some punch," she said.

After a second of hesitation, Penny answered. "I would love to."

The guards followed them.

* * *

"I can't believe she had a date all along," Weiss said. "I feel betrayed."

"To be fair, Penny's probably escorting her as a friend," Blake tried to console her.

"What do you mean probably," Yang growled.

"Well, Ruby likes weird girls," Blake said, completely unfazed. "Case in point:" she pointed at Weiss.

Yang cracked her knuckles while Weiss complained.

"First off, I'm not the ex-terrorist here, so don't talk to me about weird. Second, she doesn't like me at all. She tolerates me because I'm a great support."

Yang and Blake nodded in agreement.

"You're supposed to tell me about how we're all friends or something." Weiss said.

"It's more fun if we make you admit to the fact that you were fishing for pity," Blake said.

"I hate you guys."

"Don't worry, Weiss, we hate you too." Yang said with a smile that was either sarcastic or making fun of Weiss. "We should dance," she said to Blake, who agreed all too quickly.

* * *

Ruby led Penny to the food tables, since she didn't trust herself not to fall over.

Sure, she could balance herself well enough to make it through Blake's spiderweb, but having to step with pinpoint accuracy was getting to be too much for her. After all, balancing on heels was a lot different from balancing in boots.

Dancing was absolutely out of the question.

"Ruby," Penny said. Ruby felt a little better since she stopped always prefixing her name with friend. "I can see you're uncomfortable in those shoes. You shouldn't wear them."

"I know, but they're the only somewhat official shoes I have, so I'm stuck with them."

"Then I suppose that was a lack of preparation on your part."

"I guess so," Ruby said. It was, by all means an oversight on her part. Maybe she should have tried to care more about the dance because she had a date she didn't want to disappoint. "You know what, I want to dance and I'm going to dance," she said and took her shoes off.

"That's great," Penny said, smiling brightly. "Let's go."

She led Ruby by the hand to the middle of the dance floor. Ruby was surprised by how bold she was being.

What surprised her further was that Penny was almost as bad a dancer as Ruby herself, which made everything even better. Looking back and seeing that the guards had decided on staying back and looking at them from afar pretty much made her night.

* * *

A few minutes into the dance, Weiss managed to find someone who looked even more bored than her. She didn't really know whether to approach him, but since she found no reason not to, she did.

"Hey, if you were going to just sit around all evening looking depressed, maybe you should have accepted my invitation. I'm great at it."

"Hey," Neptune said.

Weiss chose to sit down next to him. "Something on your mind?"

"I can't dance," he said.

"What?" Weiss was sure she had misheard.

"I can't dance, okay? I've never been able to. When someone asks you to a dance you're expected to dance and I can't do it."

He rejected her just because of that? "Do you really think that matters to me?"

"I don't know. I just thought it would be horrible for me to accept and then not be able to accompany you on the dance floor."

Weiss almost laughed. "You actually thought I'd be angry about something like that?"

"Well, that and I thought you might think I'm lame because I can't dance."

That time Weiss actually laughed, much to Neptune's discomfort. Then she got close to him and whispered in his ear. "I don't mind it if you're lame when you're around me."

He blushed a little. "Thanks I guess."

"Now how about we find somewhere we could not dance in peace."

* * *

Yang was having fun. Strangely, she didn't expect to. Planning the dance pretty much burned her out for wanting to go, but dancing with Blake and teasing Ruby and Weiss made it totally worth it.

She was pretty disappointed when Blake asked her to stop dancing, but she did do it so that she could patch things up with Sun.

Yang went to get something to eat and found Weiss in a small room off to the side. They looked like they were dancing, but he was really bad at it.

Was Yang really the only one without a date? Well, she should have been happy about it, since she did spend all that time making sure that there would be at least one couple that would remember the party as the place they fell in love.

She totally didn't do that because she was annoyed with all the sexual tension around her. Absolutely not. She would definitely never do something like that.

She went and got some drinks, some food, talked to Weiss a little when she saw her come out, but generally, she was bored. Who could have imagined that Yang Xiao Long would be bored at a party she organized.

She went to listen in on Ruby and Penny, but they didn't really talk much, and when they did, Yang couldn't really understand a word. The massive world of weapons was something she didn't entirely get.

In other words, there was nothing that interested her going on at the party.

Luckily she wasn't the only one, so she quickly found a small group chatting in the hallway and joined them.

* * *

Jaune went outside to take a break.

He really was no good at parties after all. He couldn't get a date and he wasn't really having any fun with it.

Next to him Pyrrha appeared.

"Knowing who organized this, I expected more," she said. "Then again, knowing who organized this, I'm surprised we got this much."

"They did their best, I think," Jaune said. "I guess there isn't much you can do with a school party like this."

"I guess." Pyrrha said. She set her cup down on the edge of the terrace and looked at Jaune more seriously. "No date?"

"None. You?"

"Me neither."

"That's surprising," Jaune said. "You're pretty popular, right?"

"I guess. I'm also intimidating in the worst way."

Jaune smiled. "I guess a lot of guys wouldn't want to date a girl that's several times stronger than them."

"Would you?"

"I have seven sisters. I'm used to being at the mercy of females," he grinned. "What about you? Would you date someone stronger than you?"

"I wouldn't mind," Pyrrha said.

"Listen," Jaune said. "I'm bored, you're bored, you want to get out of here? I know a nice roof we can go train on. As added difficulty we could not change out of these clothes."

Pyrrha gave him an incredulous look, but then laughed. "You know what, I'll take it."

* * *

After careful consideration, Weiss decided to ditch Neptune and go out and take a breather. Blake joined her in a few minutes.

"I don't think that whole dating thing is for me," Weiss said.

"I can certainly see what you're saying," Blake agreed. "By the way, have you seen Yang? She disappeared a while ago."

"She probably organized another party over the cover of this one," Weiss said. "Either that, or she's doing things neither of us want to know about."

Blake nodded slowly, probably trying not to imagine said things. "By the way, you don't happen to remember every single thing you ever told me, right?"

"You still can't remember that thing I said that's somehow important?"

"No. It's bugging me."

Weiss wondered what could have been something important she said. She arrived at the conclusion that almost everything she ever said could be important in certain circumstances.

"Don't think too hard about it," Weiss said. "It'll come to you when you least expect it."

"Like I said, it's bugging me."

"The first thing I ever said in front of you was..." Weiss started but Blake stopped her.

"It's pointless. I know you can't remember everything you said since coming to Beacon."

"You underestimate me," Weiss said in a pompous voice. "...Although you're probably right."

"Of course I'm right," Blake said. "I'm right about everything except things that matter."

"Are we moving on to what happened with the Paladin and Torchwick?" For Weiss reading Blake was far too easy.

"No, not really. It's just that most of the choices I make are wrong."

That was what Weiss expected her to say.

"Have you considered the possibility that there may not be any right answers?"

"What am I supposed to do then? Give up?"

"No. Just pick the slightly less horrible choice. It's the best any of us can do. There are no right answers, but there are also no wrong ones. Ask yourself if you made the best possible choice in the scenario you were in out of the ones you came up with at the time you had to make them, and if you have, then good for you. I can certainly say I haven't."

Blake was silent for a while. Maybe Weiss could have worded her explanation better.

"Tell me about one of your bad choices," Blake said. "You already know some of mine: The White Fang, Roman and I can't think of any more off the top of my head, but you get my point."

Weiss wondered where the sudden curiosity that had overcome Blake came from. She certainly hadn't cared about any of her teammates' backstories before.

"Well," Weiss started, but she wasn't sure what she should talk about. "There was that one time I snuck into my father's office trying to surprise him. When he came over, for some reason I decided to hide, so I hid inside one of the cabinets. I spent the entire day stuck in there."

Blake had a smile on her face.

"It's not funny. You have no idea how hungry and thirsty I got."

"You were lucky you didn't have to go to the bathroom."

"I did. I held it in. For hours."

Blake's grin widened.

"Oh, fine, go ahead and laugh. I was six. I'm over it."

Blake did her best to compose herself. "It's not that it's funny, it's just that I can imagine you huddled in a corner, trying not to be seen and for some reason I think it would have looked adorable."

Before Weiss could retort about how it was pathetic and not in any way adorable, Ruby found them.

"Hey guys, how's it going?"

"Talking about Weiss when she was a cute little girl. Did you ditch your date too?"

"Nope. I was getting us some drinks and I saw you two out here being all lovely-dovely."

Blake and Weiss exchanged a look.

"No." They both said at the same time.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked innocently.

"I know what you're doing. Yang told you to try to set us up together, didn't she?" Blake said.

"Wrong. Although you have to admit, talking about your childhoods under the stars is pretty romanti..." Ruby stopped mid-sentence.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"Nothing, just remembered I have something urgent I have to do." She said. "Tell Penny I'm sorry."

She disappeared A few rose petals gently fell to the ground.

"She was looking that way," Blake said, turning around to look over the east wing of Beacon. "I don't see anything, even though it's nighttime. Then again, at this range my night vision is not as good as it normally is."

"We must have missed it," Weiss said. She could barely distinguish the building in the dark. "I could illuminate it with glyphs, but that could spook whoever is inside."

They were silent, thinking.

"She went off alone, which means she thinks she can take care of whatever it is alone," Blake said. "I think we should let her."

Weiss didn't really agree, but there was nothing she could do. "I'll go talk to Penny," she said.

* * *

Ruby wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for, but she was sure that she saw movement on top of the roof of the building.

Normally, she would have written it off as a student trying to set up a prank or something, but knowing that all of the students were supposed to be at the dance, it was suspicious. Almost like someone wanted all of the people out so that they could do something without being seen.

So she pursued at full speed. She abandoned her heels at the elevator and summoned her locker in the middle of the courtyard. It wasn't exactly what she wanted, but she didn't have the time to get Crescent Rose from her room, so the backup was going to have to do.

It wasn't exactly inconspicuous either, but it was better than going in unarmed.

Judging from where the person she saw was, she knew their target wasn't a random corridor in Beacon. If anything, it would be the Communications Tower in that direction. Security should be loose because of the dance.

She shot forward, trying to close the distance as quickly as possible and found two guards outside the elevator knocked out.

She unfolded her scythe and tried to be as still as possible, concentrating on detecting the intruder.

She didn't see anything and she didn't hear anything either, but she smelled something. A very faint smell of smoke. It felt oddly familiar.

She saw the floor on which the elevator had stopped and called it down. Then she entered and pressed the button for that floor.

If the person infiltrating the tower was smart, they would have sent the elevator to a different floor after getting out, but Ruby doubted whoever it was bothered to do it. After all, they wouldn't expect anyone to follow them because of the dance.

When she came out of the elevator, she saw a woman in front of a monitor. A masked woman.

"Stop," she said, trying to sound as confident as possible.

"Not yet," the woman said. Hearing her voice, Ruby finally remembered where she knew that smell from. Cinder Fall, the girl she talked to yesterday always had a scent like that around her. But the way she looked right now reminded her of someone very different. The woman she met the night before she was accepted to Beacon. The woman who could fight an experienced huntress off while hanging from the side of a Bullhead.

She felt her limbs becoming heavy. The scythe she held in her hands felt awkward, as if she could swing it wrong and cut herself. She couldn't even draw a single breath.

Ruby bit her tongue hard enough for her mouth to fill with blood. She couldn't afford to look weak. The taste of blood cleared her head enough to realize that she needed to look anything but afraid. That woman looked like the type to pounce on things that tried to run away.

"I know who you are," Ruby finally said. She made a lot of effort to speak loudly and clearly.

Cinder's gaze rose from the monitor for a second before going back down.

"I suppose I shouldn't have spoken," she said. Ruby barely heard her over the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears.

"I would have figured it out anyway," Ruby said. "Your semblance has a very specific smell. One that I remember from the very first time we met."

The corners of Cinder's mouth curled up into a grin.

"Very impressive. You have managed to link me to two crimes already. Although I don't think your nose will count as evidence."

"Maybe not, but your confession will. If only I had a way to record it." Ruby took her scroll out. Obviously, she didn't think to set it to record, but Cinder didn't know that.

Cinder chuckled. "So what? Are you going to use it to blackmail me? Or try to arrest me?" she didn't stop typing on the keyboard.

Moving a few steps forward, Ruby saw two swords that were resting on the desktop that Cinder was working on. She tightened her grip on her scythe.

Cinder finally looked up and powered the computer off.

"I suppose there is only one thing left to do," she said.

"Take care of the witness?" Ruby whispered. She would have said it louder, but she could barely speak. Her lungs didn't seem to be able to suck in enough air.

"In a sense." She picked up her swords and held them up. "I need you to forget you saw me here. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to."

That was when the communication device in her ear came to life. Because of the silence in the room, Ruby was able to hear everything. "A guest has left the dance. The White Rook."

"Understood," Cinder said and turned back to Ruby. "It looks like we'll be having some company soon. How about we make this quick."

Ruby knew that all she had to do was hold out until the "White Rook" arrived. She held her scythe even tighter, to the point where her arms trembled.

"That's not what I had in mind," Cinder said. "For the next five minutes, you can ask me anything."

Ruby almost dropped her Crescent Rose knockoff. "What?"

"Even if I killed you here, that would only make my situation worse. If I can't force you into silence I'll reason with you."

Was she going to try to manipulate her? It certainly seemed like it, but there was nothing Ruby could do to avoid it.

"Where is the White Fang base?" she asked. It was an innocent enough question. It couldn't be used against her in any way.

"I don't know. Our operation runs on a need-to-know basis. Even I don't know everything."

"Why not?"

"Because it would be a pretty bad organization if it collapsed because the leader broke under torture."

That made sense. What other question could she ask?

"Are you the leader then?"

"Yes."

"What about Roman?"

"He's a puppet. Does what he's told and is pretty good at it."

"Emerald and Mercury?"

"Same."

"The White Fang?"

"Good for whenever we need to do something with a bigger scale. By the way, would you mind pushing a button on the elevator so we have more time to talk?"

Ruby wondered if she should. Wasn't she just killing time, waiting for her savior. This would delay them, but she had a few more questions she wanted answered. She went to the elevator and pushed the button for the next floor.

"What about all of the dust? Where does it fit in?"

"The dust is a means to an end. We need it to keep our organization running, and for some of our plans."

"Do your plans include terrorism?"

"Yes."

That was probably the only thing she needed to hear. Ruby raised her scythe again.

Cinder also held her swords up. "Before we start fighting, would you hear me out," she asked.

Ruby nodded. Her desire to do something righteous nearly got her into a fight she was sure she would not get out of alive. She lowered her scythe.

"Two weeks from now, a devastating attack will be carried out against the city of Vale. It will result in numerous casualties and the eventual fall of the city. Our group is working to make sure that a tragedy of such proportions does not come to pass. We will remove the thing our enemy will gain from the attack, therefore making it meaningless. That is all I can tell you without putting our plans in danger. If it isn't enough, then I am content with taking the rest to the grave."

She spread her arms, as if inviting Ruby to shoot her.

Of course, Ruby could never do something like that.

"Run," she said. "Since your information is interesting, I'll let you go tonight. Although we should probably make it look like there was a struggle."

Cinder joined her swords into a makeshift bow and started shooting at the terminals around her without a word. Ruby followed her lead and silently made a couple of cuts on the furniture and destroyed a couple of terminals, before firing a few rounds for good measure.

"See you around," Cinder said. She broke her swords apart again and threw one on the ground. The other she threw through a window, breaking it. "Good luck." She jumped out through the broken window.

Ruby looked down only to see her land safely and run away. She turned around and called the elevator to her. It came from the very bottom, so she knew that the so called White Rook was in there.

As the doors opened, she was unsurprised to find that the White Rook was none other than General Ironwood.

"Are you okay?" That was the first thing he asked her. Ruby found herself pleasantly surprised. She was about to answer when she felt her knees buckle. She quickly put more of her weight on the scythe's handle.

"I'm unhurt," she said. "Whoever I fought got away." Then her grip slipped and she fell. Ironwood caught her before she could hit the ground.

"I think I've used up all of my adrenaline for the next ten years," Ruby said. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be," Ironwood said as he gently lay her down on a table. "You did the best you could, given the circumstances."

Ruby would have felt a lot more flattered if she had actually done anything.

* * *

As much as Blake tried to tell herself that it would be fine, she couldn't help worrying for Ruby.

"I get the feeling you're a little distracted," Sun said. Blake remembered that they had been talking.

"A little." She admitted.

"The White Fang thing?"

"That too, I guess."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not unless you can stop time. I'm almost out of it and I have no idea what I'm even doing."

Sun looked like she had said something brilliant. "Well, lucky for you I can do something like that." He clapped his hands in front of himself and concentrated. A second later another him walked out of his body.

While somewhat impressed, Blake really couldn't find a use for it. "Doesn't help me." She tilted her head back and stared blankly at the ceiling. The lamps caught her eyes. "Dust. It's used so casually everywhere and yet it is also so incredibly destructive in could be used for mass murder."

Sun followed her lead and looked up. "Yeah. With the amount of dust needed to keep the cities running, I'm surprised it hasn't been used like that before."

Blake wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying, but something about that sentence sounded important to her. "Say that again." She said.

Sun repeated what he said, but that wasn't what Blake heard. Instead, she heard Weiss' voice saying: "The only things you could do with amounts this massive would be to power a city or build a weapon of mass destruction."

Powering a city.

She remembered what she told Yang in the morning, about how most of the White Fang lived outside the wall.

That combined with the numerous failed expansion attempts made by Vale all suddenly connected into her head and gave her the best possible location for a scheming terrorist organization that didn't want to be found.

She quickly moved through the crowd, leaving Sun alone. She needed to find a very specific person. The only person who knew everything about the past.

She had to get Bartholomew Oobleck into her mind map.

* * *

A while later, Ruby was in Ozpin's office with a blanket over her shoulders, explaining the situation yet again. She saw a mysterious shadow on a rooftop and went to investigate. Then she got in a fight with it and scared off whoever it was.

They seemed to believe her. Well, at least Ironwood did. Ozpin, on the other hand, did ask her some questions that led her to believing that he may have guessed that she was lying.

Normally, she would have been very nervous at such questions, but after her encounter with Cinder she just felt tired and didn't get as stressed out over lying as she usually did.

Professor Goodwitch entered the room, carrying one of Cinder's swords.

"After careful consideration, the police deduced that this is very recently created volcanic glass. Judging by all the sharp edges, the person that used it repaired it every time it broke." She levitated the sword until it was in the middle of the room.

"Volcanic glass?" Ironwood asked.

"Obsidian," Ozpin answered. "Very sharp and it only gets sharper the more you break it. Someone with enough skill in using fire dust could use raw ingredients to create it. It's also not metallic in any way, so it can be sneaked through any security. It's also lighter than metal."

Ruby did her best to remember that. It would be an incredible advantage over Pyrrha.

"The fact that you mentioned skill with fire dust and the explosions that have gone off in that room lead me to believe that we may already know the culprit." Goodwitch looked at Ruby for confirmation.

Ruby nodded. "It was her. She was far better prepared this time."

"You're lucky to be alive," Glynda said.

"Trust me, I know." Ruby said. She still felt short of breath whenever she thought about it. She turned to Ozpin. "Do you know what she tried to do?"

"No. There is nothing strange about the computers she messed around with, except for the fact that they have a black queen for their desktop."

"You people really like your chess metaphors," Ironwood noted. "But the fact that we found nothing is meaningless. That woman knocked the guards out. She must have planned for us to find out about this."

"Could she have sent something to one of the other cities?" Ruby asked.

"Most likely. It is these towers' purpose, after all. But why would she not do it the way normal people do? Calls aren't monitored and neither are data transfers. The most we could have found out was who she was talking to."

"Then that's what she wanted to hide. Can you see where she connected to?"

"The police already did." Goodwitch said. "She contacted a small street terminal in Atlas. There is no way of figuring out who was on the other side."

"Atlas has surveillance cameras all over the place. They must have caught whoever it was." Ironwood brought out a scroll and started tapping on it.

"The police department of Vale asked the city of Atlas for assistance and they said that there were no cameras around the terminal and that there was no one at that time on the nearest ones." Glynda said. At that moment Ruby's own scroll buzzed. She took it our discretely, read the message and put it away before Ironwood was done with his.

"I'm not the police." Ironwood said. "They'll investigate a lot more carefully for me."

The way Ozpin and Glynda exchanged a look told Ruby that his actions were nothing new.

"I'll have that person in custody by the end of tomorrow," Ironwood boasted. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

"One more thing, General Ironwood," Ruby said. She had a plan to bring him down just a little. "As me and my team were in Vale for dinner a few nights ago, we saw one of your giant robots destroyed in the middle of the road. Do you have any idea where it could have come from?"

Ozpin and Ironwood shared a look that told Ruby Ozpin hadn't been generous enough to disclose her involvement in that incident.

"I made a few inquiries," the general said. "It appears that particular model was stolen from the transport that was supposed to bring it here..." He made a face, as if he was about to say something unpleasant. "Along with a dozen more."

"Well, that's certainly a problem."

"Indeed. I hope I don't have to tell you to keep it to yourself."

"And yet you felt the need to," Ozpin interjected.

"You can never be too careful. Don't you remember that boy that leaked state secrets to his girlfriend, who then told the media?"

"Are you trying to imply something about the way I train my troops? That boy was from the general infantry and at the time I had no idea why you were talking about our plans in front of him. But let's not delve into past mistakes. After all, we both know mine were far worse."

"That they were." Ironwood said and took his leave.

Ozpin eased back into his chair.

"That could have gone better," he said.

"Sir," Ruby said. She needed to ask. "I've never heard you refer to your students as troops before."

"That was for your benefit. A military man like him will respect someone I call a soldier a lot more than someone I call a student."

"But we aren't soldiers. Not really."

"No, you are not. But you are close enough to be called that. Words are for you to use as you see fit. They can be a very strong weapon."

* * *

Blake led the confused professor through the hallways as quickly as possible.

Not that she needed to push him. He was keeping pace with her in spite of having no idea where they were going.

She pushed him in and immediately asked him about abandoned cities around Vale.

He automatically listed five of them and she wrote them on the map.

Immediately after writing it, she crossed the city of Celica out. There was nothing left of that place but a hole in the ground.

Then she interrogated the professor further. She made him tell her everything about every single one of those cities.

Willow she marked in green as highly unlikely, since it was now prime Grimm breeding grounds.

She crossed out the city of Wisp as soon as she learned that it had been leveled to the ground in the war.

Finally she was left with two choices. The settlement at Mountain Glenn and the cluster of cities left by the colony of New Vale.

There were two reasons why she preferred Mountain Glenn. The first was, that it wasn't so incredibly vast that it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. And second, it was far more defendable than a massive ruined city out in the open. It wasn't much, but it made it slightly more likely.

It looked like she had her winner. She kicked Oobleck out of her room and wrote a message to Ruby.

* * *

Once they were alone, Ruby wondered if she should tell her teachers about the intruder's identity. She almost opened her mouth to tell them, but a small voice started whispering in her mind.

"Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer," it said and she found herself agreeing. There was no point in driving Cinder out of Beacon when that would only make her harder to find.

That decided, she had to tell Ozpin about the message she just got.

"I need to talk to professor Ozpin about something in private." She said.

"Whatever you can say in front of him, you can say in front of me." Professor Goodwitch said.

Ozpin's expression clearly said that wasn't the case, but he didn't want to deal with the fallout from kicking her out.

"I just wanted to tell you how happy I am about the fact that there will be a mission to Mountain Glenn tomorrow and wanted to ask if there's anything I could do to secure it." Ruby said hoping that Goodwitch wouldn't be too angry about being kept in the dark.

"Unfortunately there is no real way to make sure that you will. Hopefully, you will be able to take it before any other student." Ozpin said.

"Well, I suppose New Vale, or Wisp would be pretty great as well, but Mountain Glenn is my first choice by far." That was the best she could do. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get some sleep before the mission.

She left and hung around for a few seconds to listen in on them.

"Don't think for a second that you two fooled me."

"Plausible deniability, Glynda. Plausible deniability."

"I'll shove your plausible deniability so far up


	12. Chapter 14 - An empty city

Blake only had a couple of hours of sleep before her team woke her. She stumbled through her morning routine in a daze. Afterwards she attended a speech she didn't hear a word of and it was time to secure their mission.

Apparently nothing was left to chance, as their mission had been marked as unavailable until Ruby tried to pick it. She explained to the people around her that it must have been some sort of bug in the system and that she was sorry they didn't get it.

Sometimes Blake wondered if it was easy to lie as much as her leader did.

* * *

Team JNPR barely made it in time for the mission choice. Jaune poked around trying to find something that didn't look too hard and settled on a mission that would require them to defend some trade negotiations with a group of nomads.

As he was about to sign them up, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Could I talk to you," Ren asked him.

"Yeah, of course," Jaune replied and they walked away from the female part of their team. "What's up?"

"There is a mission I want to do." Ren said. "It involves going to a village to the west and eliminating the Grimm presence nearby." He showed it to Jaune on his scroll. It looked difficult.

Jaune was very conflicted about what to do. On the one hand, he wanted a mission that he was sure he could keep under control, but on the other, that was the first time Ren asked him a favor. It would make a very good impression if he were to listen to him.

"Why do you want to go to that specific mission?" Jaune asked. Knowing more would mean it would be easier for him to make a decision.

"There is something I hope to gain by doing so," Ren answered. It wasn't much of an answer. He probably thought it would be a good opportunity to train against live targets and didn't want to make Jaune feel bad.

"Let's ask the others," Jaune said. "If they're okay with it, I don't see a reason why we shouldn't go with it."

"Thank you," Ren said and they returned.

"So, how would you guys feel about going on a mission that would require us to actually hunt monsters?" Jaune asked the rest of his team, showing them the mission Ren wanted to do.

"Sounds awesome," Nora said immediately.

"It would be good to have you practice against someone other than me," Pyrrha said. "Although it could become very dangerous very quickly. We would need to keep our guard up in spite of it being an easy-looking mission."

"I agree," Jaune said. "But I think we can do it, so why not. Let's go get them!" He raised his fist in the air to motivate his team and Nora followed his lead immediately. Pyrrha raised her hand quickly as well and that just left Ren with his hand pointing at the sky, barely raised above shoulder lever.

Nora punched him lightly. "You need to be more energetic," she said. "You got what you wanted after all."

While they were playing around, Pyrrha spoke up, "Did any of you notice that this mission starts tomorrow?"

Everyone looked at her with a confused expression.

"Beacon can't afford to send out all of their forces all at once. Vale would be left without our defense. That's the reason CFVY went before us we had to wait for them to return so that we could go out."

"Oh," Jaune said. Everyone was so excited about it. "Well that's fine, I guess. We can spend the day getting ready."

"Boooring," Nora said. "But since Ren asked I guess we don't have much of a choice."

Ren shuffled uncomfortably.

"It's okay. We could use a day of preparation," Jaune said again.

* * *

Ruby shared a bullhead with Weiss while Blake and Yang piled into another. Professor Oobleck, who she was entirely unsurprised to find was going to lead them on the mission after the help he had given Blake, was in the third.

Since they were going outside of the walls, they needed to be escorted by at least three more.

In other words, she felt a little intimidated.

"So if it turns out we were wrong and there's nothing there, we will have wasted a lot of resources and time," Weiss said.

"Stay out of my head, Weiss," Ruby said. The way her partner seemed to get better and better at guessing what she was thinking was starting to get annoying.

"I would never read your mind," Weiss said in a very serious voice. "If I could read minds, that is. But since I can't there's no problem." There was a problem alright.

Ruby turned away and checked her scythe again. She needed it in perfect shape if there was even the slightest chance they would be facing Roman or the White Fang.

"I wonder," Weiss said. "How could I prepare for a mission? You tighten the bolts on your weapon, Blake probably has a chant she read in a book that she thinks over and over or something. I doubt Yang cares enough to do anything, but I feel like there should be something I could do that would increase our chances of winning."

"Have you tried shutting up?"

Weiss frowned. "How rude."

"You sure are talkative today. Are you nervous?"

Weiss noticed that she had been pacing around and sat down hurriedly. "Maybe a little," she admitted. "How about you? This is our first real mission. We're not out collecting tree sap anymore."

"Well, I would be lying if I said I was completely calm. The stakes are very high. If we find them, we could save a lot of lives."

"That sounds great," Weiss said. "Saving lives is the reason for our existence, after all."

"Not quite," Ruby decided on correcting her. "Our first and foremost mission is to protect this world from any threats. Saving lives is just a bonus."

"What's the point of saving the world if there's no one left to live in it?"

"What's the point of saving people if there's nowhere left for them to live?"

"People can make a home, but a home can't make people." Weiss retorted.

Ruby's head was starting to hurt. "Can we not talk about this? We have a mission to concentrate on."

"Sure, you're the one that brought it up."

"Technically you were." Ruby said.

Weiss opened her mouth to argue, but chose to shut it without saying anything. She was learning.

* * *

"So," Yang said after a long silence.

"What?" Blake asked.

"I forgot what I was going to say."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Just popped out of my head."

"Was it important?"

"Not really."

"Well then I guess it doesn't matter." Yang expected Blake to have figured out that she was just trying to break the silence a lot sooner. Maybe she did and was trying to keep the conversation going. Might as well keep it going.

"It does matter because next time I could forget something important."

"So what do you expect me to do about it?"

"Start reading my mind and keep notes. Weiss already does it for Ruby."

"I'm not Weiss," Blake said. "Thankfully."

Yang could definitely agree with the last part. She liked how her teammates were completely different in every possible way. She could also barely handle one Weiss. Two would probably drive her crazy in under a week

"Hey Blake," Yang decided to ask what she had meant to initially.

"What?"

"Are you scared?"

Blake took a while to think about her answer. "Scared of what?"

"Just scared in general. Right now, do you feel afraid?"

"No." There was no hesitation in her voice.

"Really? Not even a little bit?"

"No. My only fears are very real, but in our current situation they would do me more harm than good, so I chose to discard them. I can't be distracted in the middle of a mission."

It was certainly a very practical way of dealing with the issue, but Yang had her doubts if Blake really was capable of such a thing.

"What about you," Blake asked.

"What about me?"

"Don't play dumb. Are you afraid?"

Yang already knew her answer. "Yeah. We're all going to be in danger. Including Ruby. I'm really scared of that."

"You don't have to be scared for her," Blake said. "She's probably one of the most promising huntresses in all of Beacon. She'll be perfectly fine against the opposition we're likely to encounter."

"Maybe she will, but that doesn't stop me from worrying," Yang said. "And that doesn't just go for Ruby. I feel like all of us are in way over our heads."

"Did your injuries from our previous fight scare you," Blake asked.

That was far too easy for her to guess.

"That's probably part of it. I got off extremely well. If one of you took the kind of damage I did you'd probably still be in the hospital. Most of it is that they could have chosen to finish us off then and there."

"Most people aren't all that eager to kill teenagers," Blake pointed out.

"If what I learned about the people we fought is true, then they don't really have a problem with it. Torchwick is known for being ruthless and that girl with him just feels... wrong."

"I know what you mean," Blake said with a shudder. "The fur on my ears was standing on end until I couldn't see her anymore. It was why Ruby was able to hold me back."

There was only one thought Yang had upon hearing that. "Is the hair on your ears even long enough for something like that?"

"Of course. You don't really need much fur for something like that. You feel it at the root of the hair more than anywhere else."

"Interesting," Yang said. "Well, I guess that's that. I should try to focus on the mission."

"That would probably be for the best," Blake agreed.

What a meaningless conversation.

* * *

Stepping off the Bullhead, Weiss looked for the city they were going to be searching. She didn't see a thing.

"Are we far?" she asked the professor.

"Not at all. We will be able to see it as soon as we cross the next hill. We could have landed closer, but I didn't want to risk getting spotted. We are here to find a bunch of criminals, after all." Professor Oobleck said quickly and started walking in the direction of said hill.

"Let's go," Ruby said and the team followed after.

After a while of walking in silence, Blake spoke up. "Shouldn't we be running?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes, we should, however since we are here to do reconnaissance and if we end up running everywhere, we may end up missing clues or alerting somebody."

Blake must have accepted that answer, since she didn't ask anything else. They continued walking and soon reached the hill.

"We will go in through that crack in the wall right there," the professor said and pointed at a segment of the wall. "From there we will make our way through the nearest district and go to the next, searching for any signs of life other than Grimm one by one. It will be your job to protect me from any threats while I focus on finding any clues."

"Understood," all of team RWBY said and went down the hill and towards the wall. The crack they had to go through was very small, but all of them managed to pass through it without any difficulty.

Then they were inside the ruined city.

Weiss was the last one to climb through and was surprised by the faces her teammates were making. They all look completely stunned. When she turned to see what they were looking at, she understood why.

Massive buildings towered over the group, all of them completely empty.

It was an eerie sight.

The buildings, the roads, even some cars were still in their places, with wildlife growing over them.

There were no people.

At first, she didn't realize what was bothering her so much about it. After all, it was just a bunch of ruins and she had seen that before.

But then she realized it. This place looked like a city, if a little beaten up, but it didn't sound like one.

It didn't sound like anything. It was a city, a place where thousands, if not millions, should live and yet it was completely silent as if she were standing in the middle of a forest.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking back, she saw it was Yang's.

"Are you going to be okay? This place is pretty rough on all of us, but you look especially out of it."

"I'll be fine," Weiss said and tried to empty her mind. They were on a mission.

"This place is a good example for why humans should never grow complacent with what they have." Oobleck said. "This is the city that survived the longest out of all of our attempts at expansion. It was situated in a very defendable place and had very little trouble from Grimm until one day an endless horde arrived at their walls. In a week ninety percent of the population was already dead." He paused to look at his students' faces. "Or so they say. No one actually made it out."

"So the story you said could not be true?" Blake asked.

"Indeed. It is most likely that that was what happened, but it is possible that something entirely different occurred. For example, Vale was the only city that managed to create a long-term outpost like this, so maybe the other nations decided to attack it in order to control our population and ensure we don't get the military power to defeat them. Very unlikely, but possible."

"Whoever did it should be purged from the face of the planet," Ruby said. Everyone was surprised to hear her say something so violent. "How many people lived here?"

"A quarter of a million, if you believe the records." Oobleck answered. "Probably at least double that." He started walking. "As much as I would like to extend this lesson, since you lot seem to be listening for once, we have work to do."

Team RWBY followed after him and around the corner a pack of Beowolves were waiting for them.

The sound of Ruby unfolding her scythe filled the air.

"One more thing," Oobleck said. "Since I would like us to remain undetected for as long as possible, I recommend you avoid using your firearms unless you have some form of noise reduction for them. Now, go."

Weiss got the feeling that it was going to be a very long day.

* * *

Bartholomew Oobleck was all too curious about the team he was in charge of.

On the one hand, they were a very capable team. They deduced this to be the location of a possible White Fang hideout and managed to destroy one of Atlas' new toys with only a light injury to one of them.

However, the way they eagerly went into combat without any thought as to conserving their strength made him concerned. By lunchtime all of them would be absolutely exhausted and at the mercy of their enemies.

His prediction turned out to be absolutely true. By the time he decided it was time for lunch, all of them could barely stand.

"That was so much fun," Yang said. She alone looked like she had some energy left in her. "I forgot how great it is to just punch things without the shotguns. Don't get me wrong, the gauntlets are great, but sometimes you want to feel your fist passing through an enemy instead of the repetitive recoil."

"I disagree," Ruby said, who almost had a pool of sweat forming around her. "I don't like the fact that my range suddenly disappeared and my acceleration slowed down to only the strength of my legs and semblance."

"I like that I'm suddenly the only person on our team with ranged capabilities," Weiss said. She looked less tired than the rest, but it was plain to see that her aura had nearly run out.

"Since I don't use strong ammunition, I don't feel like my attacks are any weaker," Blake said. She looked the most tired out of the four. "But the fact that we've been in and out of combat all day is taking its toll on me. I don't know how much more I have left in me."

The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

Bartholomew wasn't really sure what to do about it. On the one hand, he was tempted to make them keep going to make sure they learned their lesson, but on the other, he was worried about them getting injured at the very beginning of the mission. Maybe it would be better if her went out on his own and left them in a relatively safe place.

"So I was thinking," Ruby said before he made his decision. "We should start doing this in shifts. One of us defends while the others rest. If there's more danger we can all help out, but the main effort would fall on the person whose turn it is. The rest of us should hang back so that we don't get dragged into every fight."

"I like it," Weiss said. "But I'm not going first."

"Of course not," Ruby said. She looked through her team and selected the best candidate. "Yang, you have the most energy left, so you get to fight while the rest of us relax."

"Not fair," Yang said. "Why do I have to suffer because my semblance feeds back into itself?"

"You'll be suffering a lot less than the rest of us," Weiss noted. "And I don't know how many more glyphs I have left in me at this point. I need to let my aura regenerate as much as possible before my turn."

In a short time they decided on the best possible order. Yang would fight until exhaustion and Ruby would follow. Then Blake and Weiss would pair up and try to back each other up until the end. If they didn't manage it, Ruby would take over.

"It is a much better plan than you had this morning," Bartholomew had to admit. "Although I would recommend Ruby going last, since you need to be at your best in order to be able to give out orders."

"I trust my team," Ruby said. "Besides, think you should be given direct authority over them while they are protecting you. It makes the most sense and will allow me to rest when it isn't my turn."

"Good," Oobleck said. "Well then, let us go."

They gathered up their luggage and continued their mission, Ruby, Weiss and Blake walking behind the main group.

Oobleck thought it would be the best opportunity to do that thing Ozpin asked for.

"So, Yang, why do you want to become a huntress?" He asked.

"What's with that question all of a sudden?"

"Do you mind? Since you are now my direct subordinate I thought it would be fitting for me to learn more about you."

Yang didn't respond immediately. "Do I have to have a reason? Can't it be just something I want to do?"

"So you wanted to be a huntress because you wanted to? Forgive me if I am a little confused at your answer."

Yang frowned. "No, I mean... I just thought it would be cool. Adventures, hunting monsters, that sort of thing. I don't have some profound reason and I don't really need one, do I?"

"I suppose not," Oobleck answered. Her view was certainly simple and that was a good thing. The world could use more hunters that didn't have some sort of agenda they wanted to accomplish.

He continued looking through the area in silence until his guard changed.

"Hello Ruby," he greeted her. "Are you feeling up to this?"

"Of course," she said. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here. Besides, Blake and Weiss will be the ones that will really hold the fort. I'm just buying them some time."

"That's good. They were the most tired so they get to rest the longest and hopefully recover the most energy. Although I expected Blake to do better than the rest of you."

"Is that so?" She didn't look the least offended. "Normally you would be right, but because of recent events she's feeling under the weather. After a good night of sleep she should be back to full power. However... that makes me wonder. Why exactly did you think she would be do better than the rest of us?"

She caught on quickly. "Because of her previous experience. She must not have had any with prolonged combat."

"So you know then?"

"Know what?" He wondered how Ruby would respond. It was a difficult question after all.

"If you did you would know what I mean. Forget I said anything. I'll go take care of that group of Grimm over there." The young huntress took off. He didn't even get the chance to ask her about her reason for being a huntress.

He did it as soon as she came back.

"That's a difficult question," Ruby said. "But I think I'll go with saving people. It's a noble goal that I would be happy if I could accomplish." She laughed. "You know, considering the conversation Weiss and I had in the Bullhead on the way here, my answer is pretty ironic."

She didn't seem to want to explain further, so he left her alone. Two down, two to go.

As the day slowly started to end and the setting sun gave an orange tint to the remnants of the city around him, his guard changed for the last time

Talking to Weiss and Blake in private was going to be difficult, but not impossible. He slowly waited for his chance and when Blake went ahead to kill some stragglers, he took it.

"Because my family demands military service," Weiss answered. "But also because I wanted to get away from it all. I feel like I was not made for politics. This kind of life feels a lot better for me."

"So you enjoy the lifestyle?"

"Yes. Having friends you have no choice but to trust, spending time with strange people and not having to deal with money are currently my top reasons as to why I prefer this lifestyle over any other."

"And what about the danger?"

"That's also pretty high up there. What's life without a little excitement?"

What a strange girl. He carefully wrote her answer down when Blake returned and waited for his chance. It was presented to him by none other than Weiss, who said she wanted to examine some of the ruins a little closer, leaving them alone.

"Blake, I was wondering, why do you want to be a huntress?"

"Is there any reason why I shouldn't?"

"Not at all, I was just curious about the people that are protecting me."

"I sincerely doubt you need or rely on our protection."

"You would be surprised," he said.

"Well, then, I suppose I should tell you. I want to be a huntress because I want to make a difference .Being a huntress will give me the power to do that."

"A change to what?"

"A lot of things," she said and didn't elaborate. What she already said was probably going to be enough anyway.

* * *

The day was long and hard, but finally it was over. Blake felt like she might fall over from exhaustion.

"Please tell me you found something," she said in between bites from her dinner.

"If I did I would have said something. The fact that I didn't mention it means that I was unable to find anything. Now, I believe it is time for us to decide on the night watches."

"I'll go first, I guess," Yang said. "I'm the most rested."

"That would be wrong," Oobleck said. "I am and all of you could use some rest."

"Nope," Ruby said. "I want to get a big chunk of uninterrupted sleep, so I'm going first. Yang can go after me and Doctor Oobleck, you can go ahead and rest since you're the most important part of this team. Weiss is after Yang and Blake can also rest the entire night."

"I have no complaints," Oobleck said. He seemingly got the best part of the deal, after all, but Blake fully expected him to stay up all night anyway, just in case.

Since no one else said anything, Ruby continued. "Well then, rest up. Whoever's on watch, feel free to take a caffeine pill if you feel like you're falling asleep."

Blake searched her pockets and found the pill in question. It would probably come in handy.

After finishing dinner, Blake slipped into her sleeping bag and instantly fell asleep.


	13. Chapter 15 - A sleepless night

Ruby decided to end her shift a little early and tried to wake Yang. She was moderately successful.

"Hey, I really need to go pee. Take over for me," she told her and disappeared from their camp.

She found herself a bush to bunker down in and did her business.

As she was about to head back, she heard some noise nearby. It sounded almost like a voice.

She decided to creep closer and found two people walking on the street, almost as if patrolling. She easily recognized their uniforms in spite of the poor lighting. Unfortunately for her, she didn't account for the fact that they had far better night-vision than hers. They noticed her.

She wondered if she should run. However, that would mean putting all of the White Fang on high alert and probably not finding exactly where they were hiding.

Or she could simply let herself get caught and see where they take her.

She showed herself from behind the shadows.

"What is someone like you doing out here," the first White Fang grunt asked her.

"Just taking a stroll."

"This isn't a good place to be taking a stroll, little girl," the other said. "Who are you?"

"I'm with Roman," she said. It was her best bet to get to him as quickly as possible. He already kept a young-looking girl with him, so it was believable, right? "Ask him if you don't believe me."

"We might just do that," the first one said. "Go ahead of us, we'll follow."

Smart. "Even if I knew where I was going I wouldn't do something that stupid," she said.

"Wouldn't you know the way if you're with us?" the man asked, aiming his gun at her.

"I just got here," Ruby said quickly. "How am I supposed to know where the entrance to your super-secret hideout is? You idiot." She added that last part in hopes that it would make her seem more like someone who would associate with Roman. Judging by the first guard's frown, she succeeded.

"Follow us. And try to keep quiet. Most people aren't as forgiving of insults as I am."

"Like you lot could do anything to me," Ruby muttered under her breath. She was really getting in character.

"Definitely one of his," the second guard said. "Just don't get in any fights. We have enough problems as it is."

Ruby wondered if she could get away with asking what their problems were, but with the way she had been acting it would be far too suspicious.

They led her to a small house. In the kitchen under a carpet, there was a trapdoor that continued further down. There was a heavy door at the bottom and two more guards. Four people. It was getting complicated.

"Who's this?" one of the guards on the door asked her guards.

"Another one of Torchwick's. Found her wandering around outside."

The doormen gave similar frowns. Maybe she chose the wrong name to drop.

"He hasn't said anything about any more of his people coming over."

It was getting bad. Ruby had to find some way to get out of this.

"Why would he tell you such sensitive information," Ruby asked in the most arrogant voice she could muster. "For all we know, you might decide to ambush me in the city on my way." _I'm sorry Blake._ "I wouldn't put it past animals like you. Now, out of my way. I have to go see my boss."

As she tried to push past them, a pair of hands grabbed her from behind.

"Even if you are who you say you are," one of her guards said, "we can't allow you to go through the civilian area while armed. Leave your weapons here. We'll go with you to make sure you don't get into any trouble." Judging by his tone of voice, he wanted to make sure that she wouldn't do anything to harm their people. It was reasonable, but she didn't want to hand her weapon over so easily.

"My weapon stays with me. She hasn't left my side for the last three years and I am most certainly not about to hand her over to the likes of you." Maybe she was laying the racism on a little thick, but it was the only reason why one of Roman's people wouldn't trust the White Fang.

"The weapon stays here," one of the men at the gates said. "That is not up for negotiation."

Ruby reached back for Crescent Rose. She really didn't want to start a fight when there might be hundreds of White Fang on the other side of the door.

"Give me a minute to hide it," she said and went back up the stairs. To her surprise, no one stopped her.

She went about one city block ahead and unfolded Crescent Rose. She planted the spike at the end of the shaft in the middle of the road, hoping that her team would find it quickly. She pointed the head in the direction of the entrance to the base.

"Touch her and I'll kill you," she said to the people in front of the door and after a quick and not-so-careful frisk, she was allowed to enter. She made a mental note to start carrying more weapons.

The stairs continued down. Going to the bottom took over ten minutes. If not for her incredible luck, Ruby thought, they would never have found them.

Not that there was much to find. A lot more empty space with the occasional building here and there. She saw less than ten faunus at any given time. Were they really even a threat?

"Your boss is over there," one of the men with her said, pointing at a building. It looked somewhat bigger than the rest, like a factory or something. "If you believe him, the train is almost ready."

"Train?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, the train. The train we're going to use to invade Vale. How do you not know about it?" He drew his gun.

"Well... about that..." Ruby couldn't come up with anything and she didn't need to anymore. Since she didn't want to meet Roman, she had only one thing left to do. "Bye."

She ran away.

As she started picking up speed, a bullet slammed into her back, sending her sprawling on the stone floor. She quickly picked herself up and jumped behind a wall.

Peaking from behind it, she saw that five people were now chasing after her. She quickly ducked back before another torrent of gunfire could find its mark.

She quickly mapped her escape route out in her mind and executed it. She ran away from her pursuers, losing them between the buildings before climbing up and hiding in a room high enough that they wouldn't be able to see her.

She allowed herself a moment of rest. It was the perfect time for her to take a caffeine pill, since she was sure it was going to be a long night. Now that Roman knew about her, he would probably start his plans early. That meant Ruby needed to come up with a way to stop him.

Since she needed some sort of weapon, she started rummaging through the rooms connected to the one she came in from. She got excited when she found two guns, but her face fell when she was unable to find a single bullet.

The people trapped in here must have fought until the very last bullet was fired, no, further than that. She couldn't find a blade that wasn't either dulled to the point the edge felt smooth, or broken into small pieces, or both.

Ruby sat down in the middle of the room and noticed that someone had tried to write something in the concrete. It was in a language she didn't understand, but she knew she could guess what it was.

A person's dying message. No one else would frantically dig through concrete just so they could write something. Not unless that something was the only thing they expected to be left of them.

There was a tightness in Ruby's stomach. She traced the writing with her fingers, wondering what it could have possibly said.

Looking around, she found another under all of the dust that covered the floor.

It one was in her own language.

Erin Free.

A person's name.

She could almost see the last of the survivors of this massive colony huddled together in this small room, carving their names into the floor while getting ready to fight Grimm with their bare hands.

All of them had fought to the bitter end. In the beginning they must have had some hope that they would make it out, but with their dwindling resources, their hope probably ran out even faster. And even so they kept fighting. They spent their last moments making sure that they would not be forgotten in time. That their names would remain, even if no one found them.

Ruby decided she was going to fight too. By the time she made it back to her team, Roman could already be starting the invasion on Vale. She needed to do something, anything, to slow him and the White Fang down.

She found rebars sticking out where walls had been ripped apart. With a lot of effort, she managed to pull one out. She then repeated the task for ten of them and put them on a table that had somehow survived.

She took out one of the cartridges for Crescent Rose she always carried with her. If only those guns could fire them. She grasped it in her hands and firmly pulled the bullet out and then poured out the fire dust that was inside.

She repeated that task half a dozen times until she was happy with the amount she got. Then she used the dust to weld the pieces of metal she found into a weapon.

She was not going to die down here like those people did before her. She could feel her heart beating faster in anticipation of fighting her way out. Not against Grimm, like her predecessors had, but against men.

* * *

About half an hour ago, Roman got a report of a girl with a red hood. As if that wasn't bad enough, on top of existing, she also managed to sneak in and then escape.

She was probably going to bring half the hunters in Remnant to their front door. He immediately gave the order to start the plan early.

Cinder was going to be pissed, but she was going to be even more pissed if the entire plan fell apart.

"Sir, we have a problem," one of the White Fang lieutenants under his command said, peeking out through the door.

"What now?"

"We're under attack from something or someone. Some sort of projectiles are raining down on our positions. We had to evacuate to here to avoid them." Roman came out of the train station and looker at the people gathered around.

"You told me that she wasn't armed," He almost yelled at the person who told him of the red girl's arrival.

"We're not being attacked by bullets," the lieutenant said. "The first strike was an incendiary device to our base of operations. Before we could put the fire out, rocks started raining down from the sky at incredible speeds. They knocked some of my men out."

"Rocks?" Roman couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yes."

"Just to clarify, the problem is that there are rocks flying from above, right?"

"Yes."

"And an enemy is throwing them?"

"Yes."

"And you have machine guns, assault rifles and grenade launchers at your disposal, don't you?"

"Yes, but if we were to go crazy with those we may bring the city down on our heads. It isn't exactly architecturally sound to begin with."

"How would you know that? Are you an architect? No? Don't think, just do what I tell you."

The lieutenant sighed. "Yes sir."

He left in a hurry. Roman went back in.

"How's it coming along," He asked the conductor.

"Getting there. Just need to shovel some more aerial dust into the pressure chamber and we'll be set."

"Then what are you waiting for? Do it, we don't have a lot of time. Where there's one hunter, there's a lot more to back them up."

He sat down and checked to see if his cane was in perfect condition. It was. Good, he was probably going to need it.

About half an hour later, the lieutenant came back.

"That girl is tearing us apart," he said. "Guns don't matter when you don't know where the enemy is. And trust me, it feels like she's everywhere. It's like we can hear her whispering in our ears while she's shooting at us. What is this girl? What kind of monster did you put us up against?"

Sounded like Little Red learned some tricks from Neo.

"She's playing with your heads. Using her speed to make it look like she's everywhere. Stressing out the opposition in order to lower their morale. Girl might actually make a decent leader one day."

Roman got up and went to the exit. "Where is she?"

"Somewhere on the ground. She's been engaging us directly. Comes in, gets a few hits in and disappears. We can't overpower her in time unless all of us rush her in which case she falls back and starts shooting at us again."

"Rocks. She throws rocks. She isn't shooting at you. Let's put it into perspective here that you have Atlas' most advanced weaponry. There are hundreds of you. And you're having trouble handling a little girl throwing rocks."

"Sir, with all due respect, she's a little girl with the power to make rocks into bullets."

"Is it that hard to shoot actual bullets back at her? Doesn't matter anymore, since it looks like I'm the only competent person around here." He gave the lieutenant his hat. "Hold on to this. I don't want her putting any holes in it."

He opened the door and a rock whistled past his ear.

* * *

Ruby's strategy of using her semblance to turn anything into a deadly projectile was working exceptionally well.

It wasn't as good as an actual weapon, but it was good enough to annoy the White Fang.

Or wage full out war against them, apparently. She was actually surprised at how easily she managed to mow down their soldiers by just throwing fistfuls of stones at full speed. When White Fang that could withstand her ranged attacks appeared, she waited for them to get closer and quickly incapacitate them with a well-placed punch while running past.

In short, she actually felt like she was winning. She, a lone, weaponless girl was winning a fight against the biggest terrorist organization in Vale.

Unfortunately, that thought didn't continue for long, as she saw a familiar hat poking out from over one of the walls the White Fang used for cover.

Suddenly, her war seemed like it was about to go terribly.

As if to justify her fears, Roman left his hiding place and went out into the open. Ruby chucked a fistful of rocks in his direction, but they bounced off of him harmlessly.

"Come on, Red, do you really think that little of me?"

"Not really," Ruby yelled out. "But it was worth a try."

"No, it wasn't. You wasted your first strike." He shot at her cover and Ruby felt the ground vibrate slightly. Not good.

"You sure you don't want to just, oh I don't know, give up?" Roman taunted as he approached.

Ruby grabbed a bigger rock, hoping it would have more stopping power and at least slow him down. "Do you?" she asked as she went back to the spot she used to begin her runs.

"Not really." He said.

It was time. Ruby started running, tightening her grip around the rock until the very last second when she let it go. Roman quickly raised his cane and deflected it, but it cost him a few seconds that he didn't have.

Ruby held her makeshift scythe at his neck. It was an ugly mess of scrap metal, but it was going to be enough.

"Is that how you want to play it," Roman muttered.

"Yeah." Ruby said and as leaned into her scythe to make the cut just as he leaned back to avoid it. As a result, she didn't even manage to break through his aura.

"That... was really dangerous," he said while touching his neck. "You could have decapitated me!" He fired at Ruby, who gracefully evaded the projectile.

"Not really," she said. "That was just a little lick. I'm going for a bite next."

Ruby wasn't really sure what she was talking about, but she couldn't give it any more of her attention. Not getting killed was worth a lot more concentration than shit-talking her opponent.

She made a couple of wide swings in an attempt to get Roman to go off-balance, but he parried when she expected him to dodge and she had to run back in order to avoid his attacks.

Then again, that cane didn't look too bad. Maybe she should have taken a hit if it meant getting one of her own in.

Ruby was about to re-engage when a stupid idea came to her. Maybe it would surprise him as well. She kicked up a rock from the floor and hit it with the side of her makeshift scythe while in mid-spin. Roman reflexively blocked it, allowing her attack, which was already coming out of the spin with plenty of speed to cause serious injury, to hit him with almost full force.

He fell to his knees and spit out some blood. "You little..." he tried to say something, but the pain he felt in his side cut him off.

Blood dripped onto the floor as the White Fang watched in awe. Ruby herself could barely believe she managed to win, especially considering the circumstances.

"Don't." Roman suddenly said. At the same time Ruby sensed a presence directly behind her. She turned, her scythe already aiming for whoever was behind her, but there was no one there.

Confused, Ruby looked back at Roman and saw a small girl helping him to his feet. Her eyes were different colors, pink and brown. She blinked and suddenly there was another girl just like her with two brown eyes standing right in front of her holding what looked like a thin rapier directly over Ruby's heart. Ruby felt her aura being torn apart by another aura.

Her muscles reacted without needing her input and made her jump back. The girl stayed in place, with a very strange smirk on her face.

Ruby felt something touch her shoulder from behind her and she turned, swinging her scythe before her. What was going on? What was that girl? And most importantly, where was she?

"You should give up," Roman said. "You obviously don't stand a chance." The girl was next to him again, helping him stand.

He was giving Ruby a chance to give up and as much as Ruby hated to admit it, she needed it. She had no idea how to even begin to fight that girl and she almost got stabbed three times already. Four, if you count when Roman told her not to attack.

"I give up," Ruby said. The words felt hollow, as if there was someone right behind her saying them. She realized that she had lied without even trying.

"Good girl," Roman said. "I hate watching kids die." He picked his cane up off the floor. "Now, boys and girls, it appears we have been found out, so how about you start piling into the train. We leave within the next hour. Oh, and Neo, could you please tie our little intruder up. We don't want her causing any more of a mess, do we? Just leave her wherever when you're done. And don't forget to tie her feet together."

Roman went back towards where there was supposedly a train, while the girl took out a rope.

"Don't you talk?" Ruby asked while she was being tied up.

The girl shook her head. Ruby noted that both of her eyes were now pink.

"Great."

Just great.


	14. Chapter 16 - An explosive situation

About an hour after Ruby woke her, Yang couldn't contain herself and woke the entire team and Oobleck.

"She's probably out on a stroll," Weiss said. "As horrifying as this place is, it has a certain charm to it."

"It really does and doesn't at the same time." Yang said. "Look, I know I'm a little biased, but I'm worried and I want to go look for her. She could be in trouble."

"I'm with Yang," Blake said. "Ruby wouldn't leave us in Grimm territory in order to take a walk."

Oobleck looked like he was thinking.

"There's no way for us to easily track her. It would take a long time and she could come back while we're out and wonder what happened." As Yang was about to interject he raised his hand. "However, we cannot count out the possibility that she was attacked. We have to find her as quickly as possible. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"Aren't you supposed to have the ideas?" Yang asked.

"I currently don't have any."

There was a short silence.

"Ruby's the one who usually comes up with great ideas." Blake said.

"Well then, let us work with the one I have," he said, completely ignoring the fact that he must have lied about not having any. "Since her succumbing to a Grimm is unlikely, the next most likely thing to have happened was for her to have been found by the White Fang. Blake, I would like you to think if there is any way for you to find any of them. Anything at all."

"Why would I know?"

"This is not the time for us to play our games of pretending not to know things we aren't supposed to know about," Oobleck said. He sounded angry. "Just tell me if you can think of something."

"I... No, I can't think of anything. I could climb up one of the skyscrapers and look from there, but my night vision wouldn't be very effective at that range."

"It's better than nothing. Now, the rest of you, what can you do?"

"I can fly Blake around on glyphs," Weiss said. "It would be a lot easier and a lot more effective."

"Even better. Yang?"

Yang felt like her mind was frozen. Why couldn't she think of a single thing she could do to find her sister? "Short of running around the streets yelling her name, I can't think of anything."

"Then you'll stay behind and wait here. If she shows up fire off three rounds to let us know. The same goes for everyone." Oobleck picked up the thermos he always carried around. It transformed into something longer that Yang couldn't recognize as a weapon. "Now move out."

Weiss conjured a glyph on which both she and Blake jumped. "Hang on to me," Weiss told Blake and they took off.

"Which way did she go?" Oobleck asked Yang.

Yang pointed in the direction she last saw her sister.

"Good. Hang in there, Yang. We'll find her in no time." He jumped out the window and started running in the direction Yang showed him.

And so, Yang was left alone.

She tried to sit down and wait patiently, but soon she was pacing around the campsite, trying to figure out where Ruby could have gone.

Nearly an hour later, she heard three short bursts of sub-machinegun fire. She quickly ran in the direction they came from and found Weiss, Blake and Oobleck standing around Ruby's scythe embedded in the ground.

"This is bad," Yang said. "It looks like they left her weapon as a warning to anyone else."

"They wouldn't do that. They want to remain hidden," Blake said. "This was obviously done intentionally and I believe the most likely person to have done it would be Ruby herself."

"Why would she leave her scythe in the middle of the road like that? Why would she leave her scythe, period?"

"We won't know that until we ask her ourselves," Oobleck said. "However, don't you find the placement odd?"

"It's in the middle of the road," Yang said.

"The top is pointing at that house," Weiss said. Blake and Yang turned to look at her and then at the house in question.

"Precisely," Oobleck said. "It is entirely possible she left it as a sign for us to follow."

They approached the house but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"How could I possibly have missed this," Oobleck said, as if he saw something extremely obvious.

"What? I don't see a thing," Blake said.

"Exactly. It's about what you don't see. Look at the entrance."

There was no small vegetation surrounding it, while the rest of the city looked like it had been at the mercy of nature for an incredibly large number of years.

Yang busted down the door without hesitation. Inside she found what looked like an ordinary house, but that didn't stop her from tearing out the furniture, looking for a secret door. She noticed a carpet that looked relatively new and knew she had hit jackpot. She pulled it off and found a trapdoor.

"You guys wanna bet on what we find under there?" Yang asked.

"Ruby," Weiss said.

"White Fang," Blake said.

"An underground railroad that the citizens of Mountain Glenn took refuge in once the attack started," Oobleck said.

One of those things was not like the other.

"There's a railroad down there?" Blake asked.

"Yes. It was used to ferry goods and passengers, but when this place fell off the map Vale sealed it to avoid getting invaded. Stupid. Why didn't I remember that?"

"It's okay, professor," Yang said and patted him on the shoulder.

"Normally I would correct you, but right now I don't feel like I deserve my PhD." he said.

"Let's just get Ruby," Yang said.

"And find out what the hell the White Fang are..."

* * *

Weiss went down the stairs while the rest were talking.

The corridor was brightly lit and not that long. At the end there were two guards that she quickly immobilized until her team arrived.

"What do we do with them?" she asked.

"Knock them out," Oobleck said. "They're just civilians who don't know what they got wrapped up in."

"With pleasure," Yang said and punched both of them in the head.

Blake took the keys from one of their pockets and opened the door. There were more stairs leading down.

"I knew we weren't deep enough," Oobleck said. "Let's continue onwards." They quickly ran down the stairs and reached the underground city.

"This place doesn't look like a railroad," Weiss noted. The stale air was a little hard to breathe in, but she got used to it easily enough.

"A railroad can't accommodate many people. There must have been a cave nearby that they busted through to. They're very common in this area."

"What about the buildings?" Blake asked. "I can't imagine they existed before the attack."

"Built with materials left here by the last trains. I can't even begin to imagine how long they must have held out here. Truly, sealing the railroad may have been one of the worst things we ever did."

Oobleck was frozen in place, simply looking around.

"Professor," Weiss said. "We need to find Ruby and the White Fang."

He snapped out of it. "Well, we should go ahead and search this place then."

* * *

Ruby tried to move the ropes a little. She had already given up on trying to untie them and now just wanted to make them slightly more comfortable. Her last escape attempt left one of them in a position that cut off blood flow to her right arm and she was really starting to lose feeling in it.

Roman's girl looked at her curiously.

"Could you help me get this off?" Ruby finally broke and asked. "Just this one bit here that's cutting into my muscles."

The girl shook her head.

"Please? I'm afraid I might lose the arm if it stays like this."

The girl shrugged.

Ruby threw her body forward in an attempt to get to her and bite her or something, but she fell short and landed face-first into the ground.

She shuffled around and managed to at least turn herself around so that she wasn't facing the ground. The girl's face was over hers, with a wide grin adorning it.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"You're creeping me out," Ruby finally broke.

The girl shrugged again and moved away.

Ruby heard a loud noise coming from the train station. She deduced it was probably a train.

Roman poked his head out the door. "Neo, we're going," he said.

"So are you going to tell me what's up with the train?" Ruby asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," he said. "Or maybe you won't make it that far."

He waited for Neo to pass by him and closed the door.

Was he really going to leave her like this? Ruby had to think of something or she would be in actual danger of losing her arm, or even her life. She tried to shuffle awkwardly towards the exit, but realized that it would take her hours to reach it at that speed. Her only hope was for her teammates to find her.

* * *

After an hour of searching, Yang was getting desperate. Where could her sister be? Was she even in here?

Then, a strange sound rang through the caverns. It sounded almost like a whistle.

"That's it," Oobleck said. "We need to get to wherever that sound is coming from."

All of them quickly ran to the large building the sound was coming from. On the ground, in front of it, they found Ruby.

"Took you long enough," Ruby said, trying to sound annoyed, but the effect was lessened from the way she was beaming with happiness.

"Should we leave her like this?" Weiss asked before Yang thought of a way to start teasing her. "She doesn't seem like she'd be very grateful if we rescue her."

"Not the time," Ruby said with a frown. "If you have anything to say to me, do it after we stop the bad guys from getting away on a train."

Weiss sighed and cut Ruby's ropes.

"I didn't know you had a thing for bondage, sis," Yang said, taking her turn.

"Guys, train. White Fang. Go." She said while massaging her newly freed arms. She looked annoyed. Yang had never seen her sister really get annoyed by her. It was weird.

"You know, you're not as fun to tease anymore," Yang said. "I don't like it."

"Yang, people's lives are at stake. Could you be a little more serious? You too Weiss."

"Sorry," Weiss said. She nudged Yang until she also apologized.

"Good. Now, let's go in there and get on that train." She kicked the door down as she said it.

Team RWBY plus Oobleck were greeted by the sight of the train starting to leave the station.

"Go, go, go," Ruby yelled as the team chased after it. They caught up easily and climbed into the last wagon.

"That was too close," Yang said. "If we were a couple of minutes late we never would have caught it."

"I'm fairly certain I could outrun a train this old," Ruby said. "I'm guessing professor Oobleck could have as well. Weiss could have brought the rest of you as well."

"Why am I suddenly the team's pack mule?" Weiss asked.

"Because you're good at it. Now, what's that thing in the center?"

"That, Ruby, is a bomb," Oobleck said. He quickly took the cover off and started examining it.

"Okay. Is it, like, counting down or something?"

"Yes, it is. I don't think we can defuse it."

"How much time do we have left?"

"Two minutes."

"We should move ahead, detach the cart," Blake said. She opened the window to the roof and exited through it. She waited for everyone else follow her up and then jumped to the next car, severing the coupling with a blade of aura.

The rest of the team jumped ahead and waited for the cart to explode. Sure enough, it erupted into a massive explosion that caused Ruby's ears to start ringing.

While RWBY were looking back at it, Oobleck climbed down into the next compartment. In it there was another bomb.

"Why?" he asked no one in particular. "If that bomb had exploded as planned, it would have blown up this one as well."

"They must have planned to disconnect the cart and hit the brakes," Weiss said. "I have no idea why, though."

"I do," Ruby said, jumping down last. "Grimm just started jumping down into the tunnel. The explosion caused the ceiling to collapse and open up to the surface. The sound attracted the Grimm. Now what do you want to bet this railroad leads to Vale?"

"It does," Oobleck confirmed. "They are going to lead Grimm into the city. Why?"

"Doesn't matter," Blake said. "If it gets out that the White Fang did such a thing... I can't even bear to think about it."

"We can still stop them," Ruby said while looking at the timer on top of the bomb. Two minutes, thirty-five seconds. That made for about five minutes between explosions. "If we stop the train and continue on foot, the explosives will kill most of the Grimm behind us."

"The exit is sealed," Oobleck said. "We'd simply be stuck in a hole with thousands of Grimm behind us."

"Can't we disarm the bombs?" Yang asked, looking at Oobleck.

"No," he answered. "If you gave me a couple of hours to play around with them, maybe, but right now the best thing to do would be to chuck them overboard."

"They're welded to the ground," Weiss said.

"So unweld them. I need to go ahead and stop the train." He readied his weapon, which looked like a very strange flamethrower.

"We can't," Ruby said. "They're basically a part of the floor. The best we could do would be to disconnect them and hope they blow up the Grimm behind us."

"Do that then," he said. "Ruby, you come with me on top. We have to rush to the front and stop the train before we get to Vale. Your speed will be key in getting there as fast as possible."

Out of all the things she found wrong with that plan, she went with the most worrying. "Won't that be a problem? The bombs would blow us up."

"Better us than the city. Besides once we get there, we could slow it down and make sure all the carts have been disconnected before climbing out through one of the holes to the surface. The rest, you know your orders, right?"

"Yes sir," three voices said. Yang's was enthusiastic, Blake's was very neutral and Weiss just sounded tired.

"Good. If you get the chance for one of you to get to the front, don't hesitate to take it. Just in case my group meets some opposition."

"Understood," Blake said.

"Good. Ruby, let's go!"

Ruby followed the teacher up to the roof of the train. They managed to get two carts ahead before opposition started to come out.

She expected that, of course but was still surprised when she saw big metal robots trying to climb onto the roof.

"I wonder whose idea it was to send them out here," she said. "If it was Roman, then he is even more incompetent than I thought. I even showed him that the Paladins are top-heavy."

"That is one way to look at it," Oobleck said. "However it seems you failed to consider one thing. Those things are sure to be trivial to dispose of, however if you knock them off, they would fall into the coming horde of Grimm."

"But that doesn't make sense. He's sending his own forces to die."

"Maybe, however he must have noticed that you never kill your opponents."

Ruby felt light-headed. That would mean...

"He is actually quite the cunning commander, exploiting his opponent's weaknesses like that. You can't fight them for fear of killing them, but they can fight you without any such reservations."

Ruby had to unfold her scythe and use it to support herself. "Sending them out as sacrificial lambs..." She managed to say. "There's no way to win. Either I kill them, or I let them kill me."

"So far you have been able to avoid spilling the blood of the innocents." Oobleck said in a very neutral voice, like he was giving a lesson at school. "However that won't last forever. If you choose to continue your career as a huntress, you will eventually get to a point where you will have to make the choice between killing your fellow man and abandoning a mission or even losing your own life."

Ruby didn't know what to say to that. She didn't know what to do. Was she really going to have to kill these people?

"It seems you aren't ready for it, so just this once, I will take that choice away from you."

Ruby looked up at him, but the hunter refused to meet her eyes.

She forced herself to look ahead and see him hit a Paladin and send it crashing down.

All because she couldn't come up with a way to save them.

Giant metal bodies hit the ground and smaller, flesh ones, followed.

* * *

There were surprisingly few people defending the train. Team WBY managed to get through four carts without encountering any resistance.

It was in the fifth one that they found the one person they shouldn't have. The girl with the umbrella smiled at them.

"Go on ahead. Slow the train down," Yang said while staring her down. "I've got this."

"Both Weiss and I are better suited for fighting her," Blake argued.

"Weiss is tired from carrying you around for an hour and you still haven't had a good night's sleep. I'm the only one who stands a real chance against her."

"Do you really believe that?" Weiss asked.

"Not really, but we don't have time to argue about it."

"Speaking of," Blake said. "Why isn't she attacking?"

The girl shrugged.

"She was probably told not to let anyone through," Weiss said. "She'll attack as soon as we try to go past her. We really should fight her together."

"No time," Yang said. "Go. I'll make sure she doesn't even try going after you."

After saying that, Yang pounced, but the girl casually stepped aside. When she turned around to punch her, Yang's fist connected with nothing but air.

The girl had sidestepped and put the tip of her umbrella under Yang's chin. Yang tried to move out of the way, but the bullet still hit the side of her neck.

It hurt just the right amount. Yang felt her body fill with strength and she quickly tried to punch the girl in the face before she would have the chance to dodge, but the umbrella came up from below and deflected her fist.

She wondered if the girl could see her actions in advance. It would certainly explain how she could react so quickly to everything Yang could throw at her.

Looking around, Yang was pleased to see that Weiss and Blake were no longer in the cart. It certainly made things a lot easier.

"So, since I don't really want to go through anymore, do you want to stop?" she asked.

The girl shook her head. Well, it was worth a shot.

"Let's continue then," she said and in her mind, she went through the punches of one of the most complicated combos she knew. "I should warn you, the kids' gloves are coming off now that I'm warmed up."

The girl smiled as if to mock her.

Yang started her attack. The girl weaved through the punches with ease, even when Yang pushed her semblance to its limits, making herself catch fire.

Just as she was about to do her surprise attack, which was going to be firing her gauntlets when they were right in front of the girl's face, the umbrella expanded again and absorbed the shots.

Unlike the last time, however, it didn't stop there. The girl folded the umbrella back up and hit Yang in the abdomen with it. When Yang tried to counterattack, the girl used her momentum to send her flying.

Just as before she hit the floor, the flames around her died out. She was out of energy.

Damn it.

She pushed herself up and went for the only thing she could do: detach the cart.

The girl kicked her back down nonchalantly. Then she drew a short, thin sword from her umbrella and grinned one of the most disturbing grins Yang had ever seen.

As she stepped closer, Yang tried to push herself away, but she couldn't make her arms move. Just as the girl was about to reach her, something incredible happened.

A tall, black-haired woman wearing a Grimm mask walked into the cart, seemingly out of thin air. There was a slight red glow around her, which led Yang to thinking that she must have used some sort of semblance.

Yang wondered if she was in more or less trouble. On the one hand, the girl she was fighting seemed to have lost interest in her, but on the other, that woman looked downright terrifying.

While her choice of headgear looked White Fang-ish in nature, her weapon did not. She carried a massive sheathe with multiple blades inside, which looked like it cost more than Yang's family's house. Clearly not something a struggling terrorist organization could afford.

The woman pointed at the girl and then made the motion of slitting her throat. The girl smiled.

Then, in the blink of an eye, she was right in front of the woman, aiming her short sword for her chest. The woman drew a sword that looked like it was made of black dust and blocked with it.

Then the girl attacked again and the woman blocked that too. Could she keep up with her? The girl seemed to think so. She slowly started itching back before launching a very careful offensive.

Looking at it from the side, it wasn't all that impressive. Sure, the girl was absolutely amazing, but she couldn't even begin to get through the woman's defense.

"Listen here, you little shitstain," the woman said in a voice so low Yang almost missed it. "I could do this all day. Your tricks don't work on me. I could kill you in a second if I wanted to. Now fuck off before I get bored and start stabbing things."

The girl stood in place for a couple of seconds, then turned around calmly, opened the door and left the car. Yang had a good second to examine her features and was surprised to see that her eyes had changed their color to white.

Then she remembered she was alone with the woman. She was turning to leave.

"Wait," Yang found her voice. "Who are you? Why did you help me?"

"Because you were too pathetic to watch," the woman said and disappeared in a red glow.

What the hell just happened?

* * *

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Weiss asked.

Blake didn't respond immediately. "We have to get to the front and get Oobleck to help her. We have about twelve minutes before the cart explodes."

"Shouldn't we go back? I have a something on me that would make us nearly unstoppable."

Blake stopped walking. "You what?"

"White large crystal dust mixed with powdered coca leaves, if inhaled, can overcharge a person's abilities. We would become like gods for a short duration."

"Where did you even get something like that?"

"I know some people. Ruby asked me to do it, just in case."

Blake took a second to consider it. "How long is a short duration?"

"A few minutes."

"So if that monster in there survives a few minutes we'll just have wasted a few minutes?" That was true. Still.

"There's no way she would. A single one of our attacks would obliterate her."

"I don't know about you, but I have yet to see her actually take a blow," Blake said and Weiss realized she was right. If that girl somehow managed to avoid them until they lost their buff, they would be at her mercy.

"You're right. We may also need it on our way to the front. Here, take half." she poured some of the drug into a different vial and gave it to Blake. "Roman is also on this train. If you end up fighting him on your own, use it."

"Are you saying you're going to send me ahead if we encounter another troublesome enemy?" Blake asked, taking the vial.

"Yes. You're the one who has the best odds of making it to the front. If we encounter an enemy that might take too long, I'll stay and fight him while you go ahead."

"Won't that put you in danger?"

"Wouldn't wasting time put Yang in even more danger? Besides, you'd be surprised by how long I could keep a defensive fight up for."

"I'll trust you not to die," Blake said and continued forward.

They didn't encounter an enemy in the next ten carts. In the eleventh, however, there was a large man with a chainsword blocking the entrance to the next cart. Coincidentally, the next cart was the last one.

"Go," Weiss said and threw a fire attack at the door. The man moved out of the way and Blake sneaked past. He tried to hit her, but a clone took the hit instead.

"That's good. I wanted to fight you all along," the man said. "The honor of killing a Schnee will be all mine."

"We'll see about that," Weiss said. She got into her fighting stance.

The man attacked, but she stepped out of the way and delivered a light blow to his side. He brought his chainsword around and Weiss vaulted back in order to avoid it. That was close.

"Getting tired? We're just getting started," the man said. He swung at her again and Weiss avoided it. She blocked his next attack with a glyph and delivered a solid blow to his upper body.

He stumbled a little, before resuming his attacks.

It was going to take more than that. Weiss prepared her white dust execution move while trying to move out of the way.

It was a very risky move. She barely had enough energy to pull it off. If it failed, she would be at his mercy. Unfortunately, it was the best shot she had. Her job was to hold on until rescue came, however, she had her doubts that she was going to survive that long in a battle of attrition.

Thinking that, she started her ultimate attack.

She went through her speed glyph and collided with the man, her sword piercing through his aura. She continued focusing her attack digging deeper until she noticed her hand over hers on the sword, holding it in place.

Too close, she thought as she saw the details of the giant's mask. She let go of the sword and jumped back.

"That hurt," the man said. "Good thing my aura will heal me quickly enough. Now, where were we?" He pulled the sword out and threw it on the ground.

Not good. Really not good. She could see stars from exhaustion.

She threw a couple of ice spikes in his direction, but he shrugged them off like they were nothing.

"You know, for a Schnee you're very pretty," he said. "I think I'll have some fun with you before I kill you."

Weiss gulped. She had no need for any further explanation.

"You really don't know when to quit, do you," she said and summoned up the very last of her strength. If she was going to die, she was going to take him with her. Maybe it would even take out the train as well. Or maybe not. Her team was still here. Blake would probably be fine, but Ruby and Yang wouldn't be.

She focused her power on killing the man. In her state, it might kill her as well, but at least it was better that than the alternative.

Or was it? Weiss felt uncertain. Should she end her own life if he was offering to extend it? Her team would save her soon enough. Could she take her own life if rescue could be right around the corner?

Weiss didn't know what to do and the giant was getting closer and closer. He grabbed her by the hair and backhanded her.

With no aura left to block it, it really stung. Then he punched her in the stomach. That really hurt. She had to fight the urge to throw up.

"Not so tough now, are you, little girl?" the man said. "I think I'll leave you alive as a message to your family. What do you think? They screw with us, they get screwed. Something like that."

Weiss tried to get away, but his hold on her was too strong. The only thing she could do was spit in his face.

"Oh, you're going to regret that," he said. "You're going to regret it so many times." He laughed.

* * *

As she proceeded forward, Blake took out the small vial Weiss had given her and inhaled the dust inside of it.

It was painful at first, but she shook her head to try to clear it, wiped her face and moved on. She could see a shimmering glow starting to surround her body.

She opened the car door and saw that Roman was ready for her. Good.

"Hello there, kitty cat. Long time no see. I suppose you want to fight me, don't you?"

"Something like that," Blake said.

"Well, Little Red actually managed to hit me, so who knows, you might actually stand a chance. Now, let's get on with it." He pointed his cane at her and fired.

Blake already knew that it was pointless. The dust round exploded in her face without even making her flinch.

She grinned, teeth showing.

"Okay, I did not expect that." He lowered his cane and held his hands up. "You sure do make a scary face when you have the power to fight back. I'm almost worried."

"Almost?"

"Indeed. You see, I would be very worried if I didn't know that one of my associates is standing over your fallen teammate with the intent to kill her."

Blake wondered when she stopped hearing the sounds of battle from the previous compartment. Had Weiss already won? If so why hadn't she joined her?

She couldn't have lost that easily, could she?

"Tick-tack, tick-tack, tick-tack," Roman said. "Every second you waste here is another second a pretty heiress could be getting her head chopped off."

"Why am I even hesitating," Blake said out loud. "You have nowhere to run. I can always come back later and finish you off."

"Well, isn't that a problem for me? I wonder what I'm going to do."

She turned her back to him and barely felt another rocket hit her back. "You're going to need to do a lot better than that," Blake said walked out. She quickly crossed over to the next car and opened the door.

The sight that greeted Blake was almost too much for her.

That man was standing right in front of a Weiss who was sitting on the floor, her head roughly at the same height as that man's crotch. The man's hips moved in a circular motion. In and out. In and out.

Blake didn't need to see anything more. Her entire body was shaking with rage. Her aura was blindingly bright. Her entire being wanted nothing more than to erase that person from the face of the planet. He didn't even notice her before she got her hands around him and threw him into the wall with all of the strength she had at her disposal. The large man tore through the metal and crashed into the side of the tunnel. Then she couldn't see him anymore.

Weiss rose to her feet.

"Are you... okay?" It was a very stupid thing to ask, but Blake couldn't think of anything better.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be," Weiss said with a puzzled expression.

"Because of what just happened," Blake said before she could stop herself.

"What just happened? I'm not sure what you're talking about. I seem to be experiencing amnesia for the last five minutes."

Was she trying to deny what happened? Blake felt one of those moments when she simply did not understand Weiss.

"So you don't need to talk about it?" she asked.

"Talk about what? What happened?" She looked at her hands. "Oh, my aura's gone. Did I get knocked out?" She looked at Blake quizzically. Did she actually not remember? "Oh, look at you. You took the dust. How is it?"

What was she even talking about? How did that matter in their current situation?

The other door opened.

"Hey guys," Yang said. "Wow, Weiss, your face looks horrible."

"It does?" she touched her face. "Huh, did I get hit?"

"You don't know if you got hit?" Yang asked.

"Yeah. I got knocked out and Blake saved me, I think."

"Blake, hey, what's going on?"

"I have no idea," Blake said. It was the truth. "Did you win?"

"In a sense. We can talk about it later." An explosion was heard in the distance. "Yeah, we're definitely going to need to talk about it later."

"That sounded about four carts away," Weiss said. "We need to get going."

They heard footsteps above them.

"That could be Ruby and Oobleck," Yang said and poked her head above.

Then she went up. Blake followed her and found that Ruby and Oobleck were indeed above them.

"Did you just get here?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ruby said. Her low, defeated tone of voice sounded weird in comparison to the way she sounded when they got on the train.

"Did something happen?" Yang asked Oobleck.

"We ran into heavy resistance," he said. "Your sister is physically unhurt, however I do believe that our encounter may have a negative effect on her psyche for a while."

"I'm fine," Ruby said. "Just tired and a little sad. Now, let's go on ahead before it's too late."

She got a running start and jumped to the next cart. Then she seemed to reconsider and jumped back.

"It's too late," she said. "We need to bunker down." she jumped into the cart. Everyone else piled in after her.

"Group together and activate your auras at maximum capacity," Ruby said. "Weiss, you look like you don't have any aura left, so you'll be in the middle of us. Scatter any ice dust you have left around us so that it works as a shock absorbent."

"Do it," Oobleck said. "I'll try to make the deceleration a little less unpleasant." He went out.

"Okay, here we go," Weiss said and threw her dust around them. Then Blake, Yang and Ruby all hugged her and flared their auras in preparation for the impact.

* * *

Raven walked out of her portal and into the almost empty club.

"What the fuck is going on? Why are you up here?" Junior asked her. "And what's up with that getup? Were you out hunting Grimm or something?"

"Not Grimm. Humans." Raven replied. "I need a drink."

"Holy shit, you look almost sober," Junior exclaimed. "What the hell is going on?"

"Drink first," Raven insisted. She sat down on the bar and Junior poured her a minute amount of whiskey in a glass. "That's all?" He also gave her the bottle.

"Now talk."

"Why do you think you can give me orders?"

"Really? Come on, I know you're itching to tell me."

"I'm really not. You're going to be an asshole about it."

"I promise I won't. Now spill."

Raven sighed theatrically and drained her glass. "So you know how my spawn almost got herself killed right after the last time she came to visit you?"

"This is going to be so good," Junior said and poured himself a drink.

"Shut up. I'll hit you."

Junior raised his hands in surrender.

"So, after that whole thing, I put a micro portal on the inside of one of her gauntlets in case she ever got into so much trouble I would have to bail her out. Tonight I heard the sounds of her getting her ass kicked, sobered myself up, put on my party hat," she touched her mask, "and portalled to where she was."

"You know, out of all of that, the only thing I caught was that you bugged your daughter's weapons and listened in on her all the time on the off chance she might need your help."

"She's my daughter so it's okay," she laughed at her own joke. Junior didn't seem to get it. "But seriously, if I hadn't done it she'd be dead. I think that cuts me some slack."

"You could probably go to prison if she figures it out."

"Like that's going to happen. I was once worshipped as the god of space, you know? The only way they could contain me is if they chained me to a wall or something and even that wouldn't work for long because I can use the movement of the planet to make my portals move. It is physically impossible to trap me."

"If they trap you in a room with a bottle you won't want to leave."

"Hmm, that's true. Anyway, back to my story. I fought that little girl you warned her about. Really weak if you can notice the inconsistencies in her illusions. They're subtle, but anyone with half a brain should be able to figure them out on sight."

"I take it you enjoyed yourself? I haven't seen you this excited since I started serving that beer you love."

"I do lave that beer," Raven said. It was so good, like it was just finished fermenting and was brought in front of her for inspection. "The way it slushes around in my mouth is heavenly. And the texture on my tongue...!" She squealed in delight.

"I question your sanity," Junior said.

"I don't. Anyway, I feel like I should meet my daughter. She seriously needs to learn how to fight before she gets herself killed."

"I thought you didn't care about her."

"I don't. Leaving her to die would make me feel like shit, though."

"So you admit to feeling some sort of attachment to her?"

She didn't know how to answer that. "Yeah, I guess."

"That's it? After that entire rant you had last time?"

"Would you believe me if I said your words moved me?"

"Not for a second."

"Well they didn't, but there is something about having a daughter that is appealing to me. I can't quite pinpoint it, though."

"Motherly instinct?"

Raven laughed. That was surprisingly funny of him. Then she realized something. "You're actually serious, aren't you?" Raven tilted her head back and started laughing at the top of her voice. She banged her fist on the table in rhythm with her laughter. Then she stopped abruptly. "That was me laughing harder because of how stupid you are," she said seriously. "Now about that girl. Why did I protect her? Hmmm... Curiosity maybe. I want to see if I can make her be not as fucked up as I turned out."

"So basically motherly instinct."

"If it was motherly instinct why would I leave her? She could still get killed very easily."

"I don't know. Why did you? Did you consider at the time that she could die if you did?"

"Yep." Raven took a solid gulp from the bottle. "She stands a chance now. A really good chance, I might add. I give her about eighty-six percent."

"And that's good enough for you?"

"That's the most she's going to get out of me. While I'm not going to let her die for no reason, I'm also not going to hold her hand constantly so that she ends up entirely dependent on me."

"Sooo, keep her alive, but not sheltered? Does that mean you'll always protect her if she comes close to death?"

"No, of course not. I'll only help her if I deem the situation to be too stupid. It'll force her to learn from her mistakes."

"What is a stupid situation supposed to mean?" That part of him really was annoying.

"If she charges in with no plan and gets her ass kicked. Of course now that she's done it, I won't help her again in that situation. However, if she does something equally stupid, I might. Or not."

Raven felt her head getting heavy. "Anyway. I'm going back to my room. You might want to lock this place up. Grimm will be invading the city any second now."

She portalled out before she could hear Junior's response. She could still imagine it, though.

"WHAT" followed by something like: "Why did you wait so long to say something?" or "We need to warn the city."

One of her many surveillance portals leading to upstairs told her she was almost right. She didn't account for the swearing.

A few seconds later, she realized she was not alone.

"What are you doing in my room," she asked the twin hiding in the wardrobe.

"I expected you to have some nice things," she said, not showing any sign of fear. How stupid. "All your clothes look like they're ten years old. So boring."

"I don't believe you," Raven said. She knew better than to trust anything that came out of one or both of their mouths. "What are you holding behind your back?"

The girl seemed to consider her choices for a second, before realizing she didn't have any. She showed Raven a pair of boots.

"Do you have any idea how much those cost?" Raven asked.

The girl shook her head. "The look absolutely amazing, though."

"Yeah, they really do," Raven found herself agreeing. They were probably the most gorgeous boots she had in her current residence. The girl obviously wanted them very badly. "Tell you what, how about you and your sister do something for me and I might let you borrow them for a night."

"No." The girl said with zero hesitation.

"You haven't even heard what I have in mind."

"Knowing you, it is not going to be worth it." Junior trained her well.

"Oh really? What if I told you that my offer is completely altruistic in nature and will, in fact, help humanity as a whole?"

The girl didn't look like she believed her. "I'm probably going to regret this, but fine, tell me."

"I want you to help defend the city,"

The look on her face was priceless.

"You said that this city will be attacked by Grimm." The girl said. Her sister must have heard Raven say it.

"Not will, is being attacked. I think your help would be greatly appreciated."

She was starting to consider it. "Do we both get a day?"

"Sure."

She was seriously starting to consider it. Raven was struggling to keep a straight face.

"And there will be only Grimm to fight against?"

"Maybe the occasional White Fang, but I doubt you'd have trouble with them. I also doubt there will be any Grimm more dangerous than a Deathstalker."

The girl only took a few seconds to decide. "Okay, deal, she said and ran out of Raven's room.

"How stupid," Raven said out loud. That girl asked everything, except for how many of the enemy there was. That should have been the first thing she asked.

Whatever, Raven earned herself some rest, so she threw herself on her couch, put her legs up and closed her eyes.

If only that damn brat hadn't interrupted her nap, she would have been fully rested by now.

Guess you can't have everything in life, she thought just before falling asleep.


	15. Chapter 17 - The fight for Vale

The thing that woke Blake wasn't the pain she felt all over her body. It was the high-pitched siren ringing in her ears. She slowly opened her eyes and saw what remained of the train cart around her team.

She was surprised to find out that they weren't in the cart anymore. They were in an open area in the tunnel

"Are you guys okay?" she tried to yell over the siren.

Ruby, Weiss and Yang seemed too dazed to realize she had spoken.

She went to Ruby, who was closest and shook her shoulders.

"I'm fine," Ruby yelled in her ear. "Check on the others. We only have a couple of minutes until we'll be swimming in Grimm."

Blake went to check on Weiss and found that she was holding onto her own vial of dust.

"Are you going to use that?" Blake tried to ask quietly, but had to yell to be heard.

"Yeah," Weiss said. "When the enemy arrives I'll try to do as much damage as possible." She smiled. "Thanks for saving us, by the way."

"What?"

"You were facing the front, so you absorbed most of the shock. Although I think your aura may have broken."

It took Blake a second to realize that Weiss was right. She didn't have an aura around her. She was completely defenseless.

"Try to get used to it. The downside of that drug is that your aura won't regenerate for quite some time when it wears off," Weiss said.

"Why didn't you say that earlier?" Blake yelled and not because of the siren.

"Because you wouldn't have used it if I did," Weiss said. "Now go check on Yang while we form a plan of defense."

"Won't the military step in?"

"Not for a while. We need to hold out until they do." That sounded a lot scarier than Blake wanted to admit.

"Weiss, I don't have an aura."

Weiss thought it over. "Go wake Yang. She'll protect you while Ruby and I hold them off.

Blake decided that even if she didn't agree with Weiss, she still needed to check on Yang.

"How are you," she asked her when she went over.

"Never better," Yang said, grinning. There was an almost flame-like glow around her. What was strange, however, was that her eyes were still purple.

"You absorbed the impact?"

"A big part of it, yeah," she said while getting up and dusting herself off. "I can barely contain myself. I would recommend not standing too close. I know I'm hot and all, but right now I'm a little too hot to touch."

Oobleck appeared from somewhere outside and asked if they were okay.

"Everyone's fine," Blake yelled. "Where were you?"

"Went to see where the rest of the train crashed. It came out in the middle of the city." Blake realized he must have disconnected the cart they were in.

"That explains the sirens," Ruby yelled. "Was anybody hurt?"

"No, it's too early for people to be out and about. If not for the siren, no one would even know there is a train sticking out of the road. I believe the civilians have started evacuating this district. Speaking of, there are Grimm coming here, correct?"

"I can hear them," Blake said. "At the speed they're moving, we'll get overrun in a couple of minutes if we stay here."

"I agree," Ruby said. "Fighting them here may be safer for the city, but we won't last very long."

"We won't last at all," Oobleck said. "They will go right through us. Two minutes is not enough for the evacuation. We need to buy the people some time. Our only choice is to kill the Grimm as they come out. The exit is a little smaller so it should decrease the inflow. Now, let's go."

"Wait," Blake said. "I... uh, I don't have an aura right now. I can't fight."

Everyone looked at her.

"No time to explain," Ruby said then turned to Blake. "Stick close to me, I'll protect you while fighting."

"That's not a good idea." Blake said.

"It actually is. You could still shoot from behind me and provide cover. Also, more would come for us since there will be two of us."

"I don't see how that second one's a good thing."

"Grimm attacking us are Grimm not attacking civilians. Weiss, maybe you should hang back as well."

"No." She said curtly and continued looking back at where the Grimm should be coming from.

"But you're..."

"I said no. I can do more damage from the front with Yang."

Ruby noticed the vial in her hand.

"Okay then. Summon your lockers and restock on ammo and supplies. Anything to add, Professor?"

"Doctor." Oobleck corrected her automatically. "I'll call for reinforcements and then join you. If you can think of someone who could come to our aid, I suggest you do the same."

"Right," Ruby said "Let's go."

* * *

Something woke Jaune in his sleep. It was his scroll with Ruby calling him. Was this really the right time?

"Jaune, I don't have a lot of time, so listen carefully. A few seconds from now, Grimm are going to pour out into the city. Get your team on the first airship here."

"Wait, what?" But she had already hung up.

"So that's what that sound was," Nora said. She was sitting up, looking out the window.

Now that she mentioned it, Jaune could also hear a very distant high-pitched sound.

"What is that?"

"Judging by the call you just got, nothing good," Pyrrha said. She was already reaching for her armor. "Are we going?"

"Yeah, we're going," Jaune said and started putting his armor on over his pajamas.

Ten minutes later they were lined up in front of the airfield.

"We need two more in order to take off," one of the bullhead pilots said. "You kids in?"

Jaune looked around. Every other bullhead seemed to be full and the airships were going to take a lot longer to get going.

Only two of them could go.

His team looked at him, expecting their orders.

"I'll go with Pyrrha," he said. "Ren, Nora, we still have a mission we need to do. Can you guys deal with it on your own?"

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked. Was she giving him a way out if he wanted to avoid fighting?

"I'm sure. Ren and Nora are more than capable of clearing out a few Grimm and the two of us need to go help. Are you guys okay with this?" This time he made it clear he was asking Ren and Nora.

"Of course," Nora said. "It would be fun for the two of us to go out together like the good old times."

"Nora, we went out on a mission together two weeks ago."

"Ren, are you cool with this?" Jaune interrupted their chatter.

"Yes. I think we will be fine and I doubt we would be of that much help in the defense of Vale by the time we manage to get there. Good luck to both of you."

"Thanks man, I hope we don't need it." Jaune waved goodbye and climbed in. Pyrrha followed him.

They found a place to sit down.

Jaune was really amazed to see so many students were ready to just jump out of bed and go defend the city like that.

He looked ahead and saw a familiar face.

"Hey there, fuck-face."

"Cardin?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I just didn't expect you to be in the first bullhead out of Beacon and into danger." Jaune saw that all of team CRDL were with him.

"We got a call from your little redheaded friend," he said. "Apparently there's glory to be found in defending a city or something."

"Really? You came out here for that?"

"That and she said it would excuse us from doing that mission we have. It sounds like too much trouble honestly."

Why did Jaune expect any better?

"Well, since we're going into a fight on the same side for once, good luck Cardin. I hope you and your team don't get eaten or something."

"I hope you and your girlfriend don't end up shagging behind the bushes while the rest of us do all the work," Cardin said with a nervous smile on his face. "Good luck man, I don't want to be the one scraping you off the pavement when we're done."

With that, Jaune sat back into his seat.

"That was a very strange conversation you just had," Pyrrha whispered into his ear. "But I think it was a good thing. He was friendlier than usual."

"He'll get over it," Jaune said.

As he said that they finally had a clear view of the Grimm. It looked like the entire district was dyed in black.

* * *

Blake found out that a lot of Ruby's cautious fighting included sniping things and changing her position along with Blake firing at everything in sight until she ran out of bullets.

"Can you fight?" Ruby asked her.

"My elbows ache just from firing a submachine gun, so no. You should go on ahead. I'll find a place to hide."

"I can't be sure you'll be safe," Ruby said. "Stick close to me and try to spot for me. Tell me everything that's happening while I'm firing."

They holed up in a small house and Blake concentrated on doing what she was told.

"You can leave that big group on the left. Weiss is going for them." She watched in fascination as Weiss flew over to them and threw a storm of icicles on top of their heads, wilting them down to just a few stragglers in a matter of seconds.

"Pick off the rest," Blake said. Weiss went back to the hole the Grimm were going out of and launched a series of massive attacks that almost stopped the inflow of monsters for a few seconds. Ruby's rifle fired rhythmically, only stopping for her to reload.

"Oobleck is moving to suppress the area Weiss just left," Blake said. "We'll need to move soon. They can't contain the other side for..." Blake coughed suddenly. "...long."

Why did she cough at such a strange moment?

Ruby looked up from the scope. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Blake said.

"Good. Anyway, they need a physical body to block them from breaking through," she said. "Here, use my sweetheart if anything gets close." She handed the rifle to Blake. Then she also left her all the ammunition she had as well. Then she unfolded the scythe that was always in her locker.

"Wouldn't you prefer to use the weapon you always use?"

"This scythe is a prototype with new features. I'm going to need those features." After a few seconds of fiddling with it she removed the gun. "If something goes wrong with the first one. She can be a little capricious when used by someone who isn't me."

"Don't you need that? Firepower could come in really handy."

"Who needs firepower when I'm already both a bullet and a gun," Ruby asked.

Blake wasn't sure what she meant exactly, but when she saw her closing a distance of over two hundred meters in a few of seconds, the bullet part made sense.

So did the gun, when Blake saw her pick up some rubble off the ground and chuck it at the Grimm at speeds that killed at least a few before stopping.

Then Blake remembered she had the rifle, so she started shooting.

Ever so often, a cough would ruin a shot she had lined up perfectly.

Why was something like that happening? She had never been sick before.

* * *

So far Yang's experience in fighting a battle to defend the city basically came down to punching things. A lot.

Really, a lot. Like five punches per second. And Grimm still passed by her constantly.

She realized very quickly that it was simply impossible for essentially four people to contain a massive army like that. There were simply not enough bodies to prevent the Grimm from going around them. Even if they tried to form some sort of defensive line around their origin point, four people were simply not enough to form any type of shape that would circle around them.

As such, the most they could do was thin the herd and hope the walls of people's houses were strong enough.

A Beowolf jumping at Yang brought her out of her thoughts and back into the fight. She stepped out of the way and shot the beast in the back of the head. Then she continued her mindless rampage until she reached the source of the problem that Weiss was flying over.

"Good morning to be taking a bloodbath," Yang heard Weiss yell form her position in the air. Then a lightning bolt flew down and fried a large group of Grimm that had been standing too close together. Yang was fascinated by the way the electricity jumped between their bodies and into the ones nearby.

A few minutes later she realized what Weiss must have meant with what she said. Yang was covered head to toe in the blood of her enemies. It was to be expected, considering her weapons and the way she used them.

Speaking of, she was on her last chain. Soon she would have to resort to using her bare fists or long-range ammunition to fight.

She was probably going to do the first, since long-range ammunition was called that for a reason. It had more recoil and did way less overall damage to the target right in front of her. Her bare fists were probably going to do better.

As she was thinking, Weiss landed next to her.

"I'm out of dust and running out of aura," she said. "Fall back with me."

"I'm surprised you managed to last that long in the first place," Yang said. "I think it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say you got over three quarters of the overall kills we have." She chose not to mention how she had been pretty much out of aura before the train crashed. As a rule, Yang tried to not stick her nose in things that she didn't want to know about.

"It wasn't enough," Weiss said, looking around. "Not even close to enough."

Yang followed her gaze. "So, you know how you said we need to fall back?"

"Yeah."

"Where the fuck are we supposed to fall back to? Look at this!" She waved at a building that looked black because of all the Grimm trying to climb it, while punching an Ursa out of the way with her other hand. They were in the middle of an ocean of blackness and the occasional mask popping up.

"It's actually worse than you think," Weiss said calmly while walking and stabbing everything in front of her.

"How could it possibly be any worse?"

"Try to imagine all the screams the siren is covering up."

"Shut up. Where are we even going?"

"Ruby is maintaining a safe zone around Blake. We're going to expand that."

Yang almost stopped in her tracks. "That makes it sound like we've already lost the city."

"We have. It's time to take it back."

"And how are we going to do that?"

Weiss pointed up. "That's a start," she said. In the distance five bullheads could be seen.

The surge of happiness Yang felt upon seeing them quickly subsided. "Five? That's all?"

"Don't complain about getting help," Weiss said. "Five is more than enough for us to start fighting back.

"I wasn't complaining," Yang explained. "I just expected better. Did Beacon seriously only send five bullheads?"

"It takes time to transport an army. Be glad we got anything."

They fought in silence after that. Yang noticed that Weiss was starting to slow down more and more.

Oobleck popped out right in front of them so suddenly Yang almost socked him in the face.

"We need to move faster," he said and turned to Weiss. "Use my shoulder for support."

Weiss looked appalled at the idea, but she complied anyway. She hugged his right side and they both continued attacking with Oobleck half-carrying the exhausted Weiss.

When the got to their destination, they were greeted by the sight of Ruby running in a wide circle around a house, killing anything that came too close. It looked so ridiculous it took Yang a full five seconds to take in.

"Hey guys," Ruby said as she flew by. "You wouldn't," she said on her next lap. "Mind helping." "Would you?"

The way Ruby was starting to zigzag told Yang that she was barely able to keep her balance.

She was just as, if not more exhausted than everyone else.

I'll take this side, you take the other," she told Oobleck and they stood around the circle, fighting off the Grimm. Turret fire came from the bullheads to support them.

The odds were finally turning.

* * *

Ruby propped herself up on what was left of her backup scythe, trying to take most of the weight off her legs.

Weiss approached her.

"How's Blake," she asked.

"Not good," Ruby answered. "She's pale, shivering, coughing and in pain."

Weiss made an unpleasant face. "I guess we'll find out soon enough if it's because of the drug."

"Of course it's the drug," Ruby said. "Why else would she be in this condition?"

"Fine, it's probably the drug. I guess I'd better get ready for it."

"It was a good idea," Ruby said. "If not for it we probably wouldn't have made it."

"I can agree with that," Weiss said. "It certainly made me feel strong."

"You don't give yourself enough credit," Ruby said. "If not for you the entire city would be overrun by now."

Weiss didn't reply. They both watched the bullheads descend.

"By the way," Weiss said. "What's with the bladeless scythe?"

"I made the blades to be removable in case they get stuck," Ruby said. "So far I'm not too happy with it. I may try to come up with something better."

Then out of the horde of Grimm popped out a staff and a trident, followed by the rest of team SSSN.

"Vale police officers ready for action," Sun declared and Ruby couldn't contain herself. She burst out laughing and fell over, crashing into the ground.

"That was not the reaction I thought we would get," Sun said.

"Should we leave?" Scarlet asked.

"No, no," Ruby said, wiping the tears from her eyes and struggling to stand up again. "It's just that that was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen." She almost doubled over laughing again. "Sun, I thought the police chased you on sight."

"They still do," Sun said. "But this time they're on our side." At the same time he said that, a police car popped out of the horde and stopped in the safe area. Five policemen jumped out and started firing.

Then another car popped up. And another. Then a few SWAT vans could be seen with Beacon students she thought had randomly jumped into the fray standing on the roofs and keeping the Grimm off. People with very big guns started climbing out.

"Tell them we need a medic," Ruby said when she finally managed to tear her eyes away from everything that was happening. Things were finally going her way.

She also noticed something else. No one was stepping up to take leadership away from her. That meant she could probably keep it. "And one of you try to round up all of the hunter team leaders you can so that I can tell them the plan. Meeting right here in three minutes. Everyone else is to try and expand this area."

"Will do," Sun said and saluted.

"Cut that out," Ruby said. "We're not the military. Acting like them is insulting to both parties."

Ruby checked in on Blake and found that while her condition hadn't improved, it hadn't gotten any worse yet. Then she took out a bar of chocolate and quickly stuffed it into her face. Sugar was good. She also took another caffeine pill for good measure and went out to see what was going on.

"I want to continue helping," Weiss said, meeting her immediately. "I can carry ammo and supplies to where they need to go. I can strategize, I can buy dust. I can..."

"I know," Ruby said. "Don't think that anyone who can still walk will be resting any time soon."

She looked and saw that about twenty-five people had assembled where she told them to. She went over to them.

"I don't think I need to explain the situation," she said. "Here's what we're going to do about it. We are going to kill the Grimm before they can overtake the entire city. Right now my plan is to form a line from here," she pointed at the nearby wall, "all the way over there." She moved her finger until it was pointing at another wall, about half a kilometer away. "We stop their advance and push ahead until we reach the hole where they're getting in from. As for the..." she jumped up in an attempt to see what was going on behind them but couldn't see over the endless sea of black. "Can someone boost me up?" she asked.

Cardin stepped up to her, grabbed her by the back of her corset and flung her up. Ruby saw what she wanted to see.

"Where was I?" she asked when she hit the ground. "Yes, as for the thousand-ish Grimm behind us, I expect the police to step in and defend our backs. Our priority here is to stop any more from rampaging in the city, killing the ones already there is something the local authorities will need to take care of. If you have any trouble doing so, I'll go do it myself once I'm sufficiently rested." Her eyes went over the people assembled in front of them. "Also, Yang."

"What?"

"With them. You've been in front for a little too long. Hang back and help the police."

"Yeah, okay," she said. That was unexpectedly easy.

"Okay then. Once the police are done with the ones behind us, they'll come in and help the hunters hold the line." Ruby stopped talking. Wrong. That was completely wrong. How could she mess it up at such a critical time? She couldn't afford to look indecisive. Not with everything going on. "Wait, the police won't help. They'll be too busy rounding up survivors and bringing the wounded here for medical attention. Try to save everyone you can."

That was all of it. Probably.

"Does everyone like the plan?"

A uniform yell of "Yes!" was heard from all of them. Who could have imagined hunters could be this organized. Then again, their current situation called for a certain amount of seriousness.

"Go then. Everyone find a spot you like and start hunting. Don't take stupid risks. You can't help us if you're dead."

She went back to where Blake was hidden and took her sweetheart. "You'll be well protected," she told her. "So I'm only leaving you the rifle and this," she left the skeleton of the replacement scythe. "Stay safe, Blake."

Blake didn't look like she had the energy to respond. Ruby could only hope that the medics would make it in time.

With that, she left. She took as much ammunition as she could carry for Crescent Rose and found Weiss.

"Do you still want to help?"

"Of course," Weiss said. "What can I do?"

"You can relay my orders to the ground. I'll call you on your scroll. You'll be in a bit of danger, but if the rest do their jobs you'll be fine."

"I can do that."

"Eat something and let your aura regen even if it is just a little. You may need it."

"It won't. I took the drug too, remember?"

Right. "Then go to where Blake is. It is simply too dangerous for you to go out where a stray bullet could kill you. That's without even counting the fact that you could get sick like her."

"I'll be fine," she said.

"Maybe. I won't allow you to die here. Not on my watch. Not on my orders. Stay. With. Blake. That's final. If I need anyone to give out some orders, I'll call Yang."

"But..."

"No, no buts. Do what I tell you or consider yourself fired from my team."

"You know, I don't remember you being such a bitch before today." Weiss yelled.

"And I don't remember you being absolutely suicidal," Ruby yelled back.

Weiss took a moment to think. "Taking Yang out of the fight would be a waste. She's too useful to have her running around giving orders." When she saw that Ruby was about to interrupt her, Weiss held her hand up to stop her. "We can make a compromise. I could take one of the police cars. They got through the horde like it was nothing. I'd be safe inside and I would move around faster."

"Weiss..." Ruby said but couldn't come up with anything. "Do you even know how to drive?"

"Of course. Would I suggest it if I didn't?"

Ruby couldn't think of a reason to stop her and was well aware she was wasting precious time. "Fine. Drive only behind the line and whatever you do, do not go out of the car. Open a window to relay orders and close it immediately after."

"How are they supposed to hear me with this siren blaring in the background?"

Ruby had completely forgotten about the siren before Weiss said anything. It was as if it wasn't even there. Did she really get used to it that quickly? "I don't know. Think of something. Actually, if you could do it without even opening the windows it would be even better. Try to find a car with speakers on top. Police have those, right?"

Weiss looked around carefully and pointed at a car. "Like that?"

Ruby had to stand on tiptoe to see what she was talking about. "Yeah, exactly like that. Be very careful and try not to run our guys over."

"Ha." Weiss laughed sarcastically. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll take a bullhead up to oversee the battle and provide sniper support. You'll be my eyes on the ground, so tell me if you see anything unusual."

"Grimm in the city are pretty unusual," Weiss said.

"You know what I mean. Now, we both have work to do, so let us get to it. Good luck, Weiss. Try not to die."

"You too," Weiss said and picked up a crate of ammo that she started dragging in the direction of the car.

Ruby went to a bullhead that just finished unloading its cargo.

"Can I get a ride?" She yelled at the pilot.

"Why?"

"Oversee the battle and provide support," she showed her rifle.

"Hop in," the pilot yelled and started taking off as soon as Ruby was inside.

He flew directly over the main horde and started firing. Ruby went up to talk to him.

"Do you have a way of communicating with the rest of the pilots?" she asked.

"Maybe, why do you want to know?"

"I need to give them their orders."

He gave her a doubtful look. "Do you have the authority to do something like that?"

"Right now, yes, I do."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm the one in charge of this defense and if you don't let me contact them in five seconds I'm going to blow your brains out and figure it out myself," Ruby said and pointed her rifle at him.

"Yes ma'am," he said quickly. He pressed a button on the dashboard and started speaking. "We have new orders." He handed her a headset.

Ruby took a deep breath and started speaking. "As you may have already noticed, we are fighting a battle on two fronts. I want all the bullheads except for the one I'm currently in to help the police eliminate the Grimm behind the line of defense so that we can start helping the injured and focus our efforts on removing the problem."

She heard four voices acknowledge her orders and gave the headset back.

"Continue thinning them down here," she told the pilot. "I can fire while you're moving and my main goal is to give orders from above anyway."

She went back to the door and looked carefully. The line was clearly visible, if a little uneven. Some people managed to fight further ahead, while others could barely hold their position. That wasn't going to do at all. They had to establish a solid line before they could even consider pushing ahead.

She called Weiss and told her what adjustments needed to be made.

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha lined up in their positions. They had about half a second to brace themselves before the Grimm lunged at them. Jaune blocked with his shield and stabbed the beast. Next to him Pyrrha hadn't even bothered to block. Another Grimm taking the place of the one he killed took him out of such thoughts. As if thinking wasn't hard enough with that damn siren still blaring in the background.

All he could do was fight at the best of his abilities and that was what he was going to do.

He quickly fell into a routine of killing a monster and taking a step forward. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to kill them quickly enough in order to keep up with everyone around him. Pyrrha waited for him and even took out some of his, but he still felt like he was being a burden.

"Hey Jaune," he heard from behind him. His heart jumped in his chest. It was Weiss.

"Hey. Not a great time," he said while trying to fight. It felt ten times harder when Weiss was watching him.

"I'm going to need you to move four positions to your right," she said. "You and Pyrrha, of course."

"Why?"

"Because Ruby said so. Now start moving."

Jaune knew that it was probably wise to listen to what Ruby had to say, so he started moving to the right. Pyrrha followed him without needing to be told to.

What surprised him was that the place they went to was way further ahead than they were previously. Maybe they would actually be able to advance like this.

Or not. They started losing ground quickly until he managed to talk to the leader of the group to their right and sent Pyrrha between himself and them. With her there, they managed to barely hang on.

It was very clear to Jaune that they weren't going to last very long like this. Pyrrha was used to short, brutal matches, not what looked like it was going to be hours of endless combat. He himself wasn't faring so well. His left shoulder was starting to hurt from all of the Grimm that slammed into his shield. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to keep raising it. His other arm was doing significantly better. He felt like after all the training he got trying to catch Pyrrha, he could swing almost endlessly.

"Jaune," he heard Pyrrha yell. "Move up with me. We need to take out that Deathstalker before it gets the chance to try breaking through."

"Agreed," Jaune yelled and ran past a couple of confused Ursa that seemed to be wondering if they should give chase.

He saw the Deathstalker in question. It was a lot smaller than the one they fought back in the forest.

"Block the pincers, you go for the sting, I'll get the eyes." He yelled and started running even faster.

He caught up to Pyrrha and together they blocked both pincers as the Grimm tried to catch them. Pyrrha shrugged off the heavy blow and climbed on in order to take care of the sting, while Jaune needed half a second to recover before he could go for the eyes.

They took them out simultaneously, then Pyrrha fell onto its back and stabbed the small opening in the armor between its head and body.

The monster fell off its legs, convulsing.

"Nice," Jaune said. "Let's get back before the main force breaks through."

"Got it," Pyrrha yelled back while pulling her spear out of a Beowolf's skull. She continued killing random Grimm on their way back, while Jaune struggled to keep up.

Just as he got back, he felt something vibrate in his pocket. He certainly wasn't about to take a call in the middle of all that, but then he realized that it could be important to their current situation.

"Cover me," he told Pyrrha and pulled his scroll out. It was Ruby.

She started talking, but he couldn't hear a thing. He pointed at his ears. Ruby nodded and hung up. Seconds later, he received a message.

"Good work with the Deathstalker. You're being promoted to "big Grimm duty". Go into the fray and take out any other Deathstalkers or King Taiju. If any Nevermores manage to crawl their way out, leave them to me."

Jaune wondered if he should answer that he got the message. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something coming for him. He raised his hands to defend himself and the Ursa's paw went through the scroll in his hands. Jaune ducked under its swipe and slashed at one of its legs. Then the Ursa suddenly collapsed and he saw that Pyrrha was aiming at it.

"Sorry," she mouthed and continued fighting.

Jaune looked around for the remains of his scroll, but decided it wasn't worth it. Apparently, he wasn't going to need to answer Ruby.

Speaking of Ruby, how could she have seen what they were doing? Was she nearby? He looked around but couldn't find her. He did see a few policemen behind them. They must be there to take their place.

That was good, the police must have gone through all the Grimm on the other side of the line.

He realized that he was looking around like an idiot on the front lines and went to deliver the orders to Pyrrha. She seemed eager to get to it.

* * *

Pyrrha found her situation incredibly exciting. Being surrounded by enemies and having to fight to survive gave her a thrill tournament matches could never even get close to.

She felt incredibly hot, but not tired in the least. Every movement of hers was carefully calculated and skillfully executed to the point of perfection. She couldn't even hide her smile. She was the best fighter around.

"Taiju," Jaune yelled next to her. "Take the black head,"

"I will," she whispered and shot forward, using her semblance to gain even more acceleration. Jaune could never have kept up with her if she went all out all the time, but his presence did help her pace herself.

Or it used to. Now, she simply didn't care anymore.

The giant snake saw her and its head shot at her quickly. Perfect. Pyrrha threw her spear with all of her strength and saw it pass cleanly through the Grimm's skull. Then she angled her shield and herself so that she would deflect off its snout harmlessly.

"One more," she heard Jaune yell from behind her and she braced for the second head, but instead she found herself looking at another black one.

She quickly realized what "one more" meant. Two Taiju.

She summoned her spear back to her hand while dodging out of the way. King Taiju weren't particularly dangerous Grimm and even two weren't even close to being a match for her, however, the fact that she constantly had to keep moving around in order to avoid getting bitten in the back by the Grimm all around them made things a little more complicated.

Jaune joined her and they stood back to back in order to fight the horde that was gaining a large amount of interest in them once they stopped moving around.

"This is bad," Jaune yelled.

"Yeah," Pyrrha agreed while trying to get her spear out from between a Beowolf's teeth.

"I think we have to leave them," he said. "We're drawing too much attention to ourselves and we aren't going to be able to fight the horde and two Taiju at the same time."

"Is that so?" Pyrrha said too quietly for him to hear. "Can you keep them off of me for ten seconds?" she asked more loudly.

"Probably. Why?"

"I'm going to take a couple of snake fangs as souvenirs," she said and jumped up to meet an incoming white head. She reached it feet first and launched herself to the side, pushing the head in the other direction and causing it to crash into the ground. She pulled her armor forwards and crashed into the back of the Taiju's head, sending her spear into its brain.

As soon as she landed, she was surrounded. Jaune quickly come in to help her and together they managed to clear a small area around them.

"I saw colors," Jaune said to her.

"What?" Pyrrha yelled.

"Colors. It means we have allies nearby."

Pyrrha looked around and saw some red and blue popping out of the endless sea of blackness. When she got a better look, she saw two girls that looked a lot alike who fought through the Grimm in order to reach them. One of them kicked through Grimm with what looked like razor-sharp heels, while the other had some kind of claws which she used to tear through enemies.

"We're here to help," one of them said while running past them.

"You two take care of the Deathstalker over there," the other said.

They continued running until they reached the King Taiju and started taking it apart.

Pyrrha couldn't help being amazed at their coordination. She thought that Jaune and she were good when the blocked the Deathstalker's pincers, but those girls were on a completely different level. Even Ren and Nora weren't even close to that kind of synchronization.

"Wow," Jaune said after they brought the King Taiju down in under five seconds.

"Yeah," Pyrrha agreed. "Wow indeed. They must have been fighting together for years to be able to trust each other that much." Just as she said that, the girl with the claws punched seemingly at the other and the other moved out of the way at the last second for a Beowolf snout to take her place.

"How?" Jaune asked.

"Eye movement probably." Pyrrha said. "Look to the side quickly to tell your partner to dodge. We should move."

"Yeah, let's go get that Deathstalker before he causes any trouble." Jaune suddenly stopped. "Are those Nevermores?"

Pyrrha followed his gaze. There were indeed, hundreds of Nevermores were flying over the wall.

Suddenly Pyrrha felt incredibly cold.

"This is bad," Jaune said.

"This isn't bad. This is absolutely horrible. We can't handle an aerial attack of that scale. We have five bullheads! Why aren't the anti-air cannons doing their work?"

Then she saw that Nevermores were falling from the sky.

"The guns are working," Jaune said. "They just can't keep up with the amount of Nevermores pouring in."

"Why? Why are there so many of them?"

"They must have felt the despair of the people," Jaune said. "We need to think positive thoughts so we don't attract more of them."

"Easy for you to say. Don't you realize there are too many of them for us to stand a chance?"

"Nevermores aren't our concern," Jaune said. "Ruby said she'd take care of them. I'll trust her to do it."

"She's just one girl. There's no way she can deal with hundreds of Nevermores. Her entire team barely killed one at our initiation."

"Just trust me," Jaune said. "She'll come up with something."

Pyrrha decided she trusted Jaune, but she still couldn't shake the feeling she was fighting a battle that couldn't be won.

* * *

"We're running out of ammo," the pilot said. "What should we do?"

"Go back and restock. We don't know how long it's going to take for our reinforcements to get here, so we may need you guys to get back into the fight." Ruby looked at the horizon. "I can see a Nevermore in the distance. Let me down on top of it."

"You aren't actually planning on riding on a Nevermore, are you?" The pilot asked her, turning around to look at her.

"Watch where you're flying," Ruby barked almost by reflex. Her pilot had turned out to be extremely curious. "I've done it before. I can blind it and lead it to wherever I want it."

"Eh, girl..." the gunner said.

"That's sir girl to you," Ruby joked. She finally felt like she could relax a little. They were winning.

"Yeah, that. We're in trouble," the gunner said, completely ignoring her joke. Ruby went next to him and looked through the scope.

"Get over there," she said. "Tell everyone we need to keep the Nevermores where the turrets can fire on them. We'll act as bait."

"I don't like the sound of that," the pilot said.

"Neither do I," Ruby said. "But there's nothing else we can do. Those things would pick the line apart for breakfast. No line means Grimm flooding the city."

"I have to ask," the gunner said. "Are we going on a suicide mission?"

Ruby considered their chances. "Everyone but the pilot, out."

"Is that a yes!?"

"OUT!" Ruby yelled. The crew started putting on their parachutes and jumping out.

"So, this is it then," the pilot said.

"Our chances just increased by ten percent," Ruby said. "Less weight means we'll move faster."

The pilot looked back at her like she was insane.

"Face the front." Ruby snapped immediately. "I can't fly this thing. Otherwise I would have kicked you out as well." She hesitated before saying the next part. "I'm sorry."

The pilot looked back again. He met Ruby's eyes. "You don't have to be. I don't plan on dying here." He grinned. "Time to make some history." The bullhead sped forward.

"I don't suppose you just happen to be the best pilot ever, right?"

"Nah, I'm pretty average."

"Well, I'm going," Ruby said. "Good luck, pretty average pilot," she yelled back at him.

"You too," she heard before jumping out. She unfolded Crescent Rose in midair and slightly corrected her course so that she fell exactly on the center of the foremost Nevermore's back.

It was also the biggest, which led her to believe it might be the current leader of the unkindness. Of course she didn't know if there was such a thing, but it was worth a shot. She ran to its head and embedded the tip of the scythe into its right eye. The effect was immediate it turned a hard right, trying to reach the scythe with its wing. Of course there was no way it could do a thing while in mid-flight. Looking back, Ruby saw that the rest were following. Good.

Then some very big holes appear in one behind it. She could only hope that the people in the turrets weren't going to shoot her.

There wasn't anything she could do to prevent it, so she concentrated on pulling the Nevermore's head further right and making it turn around. At the same time, she positioned herself so that she would be clearly visible from the turret's point of view.

The massive guns opened fire, but the Nevermore she was riding on didn't falter. Behind her, giant birds started falling out of the sky. She was totally going to buy whoever was in that turret cookies.

She pulled a little harder until their course was straight out of the city. How was she even going to get back?

Just as she was thinking that, her Nevermore fell straight down. A shadow covered her.

Looking up, she saw that another Nevermore had latched onto the one she was riding on. It must have realized the leader was weak, so it was going to kill it.

She had about half a second to dive out of the way as a beak descended to peck its eyes out. The second Nevermore pulled her scythe out along with the eye and threw it into the air.

Ruby dove after it. She would be completely useless without Crescent Rose. She glued her arms to her body, trying to make herself as aerodynamic as possible in order to catch up to her weapon.

Then, another shadow covered her from above. Maybe picking a fight on her own against an unkindness of Nevermores wasn't that great of an idea. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something else, just as massive, heading for her. She didn't have time to look at it, her only hope was to get to Crescent Rose before what felt like half the Nevermores descended upon her.

Then, the shadow above her disappeared. Looking back, she saw that the massive thing she saw was actually a bullhead that had crashed into the Nevermore following her.

She didn't have time to dwell on what must have happened to the pilot, the only thing she could do was reach her scythe.

As her fingers barely wrapped around the handle, some incredible force passed her from below. The only thing she saw was some very distinct green hair.

Ruby watched Oobleck fly up, using his flamethrower to correct his course and fly through the unkindness. He led them around for a second pass near the wall, lowering their numbers even further. The Nevermores weren't going to be a problem.

Still, what would have happened to her if Oobleck wasn't there to pick up the slack? She really did make too many mistakes.

Ruby, however, had more immediate concerns. The ground was coming up awfully fast.

If only she'd thought to take a parachute from the bullhead, this wouldn't have been a problem. Seriously, what kind of person jumps out of a bullhead and into an aerial fight without a parachute? Stupid. A stupid person.

Not that she was actually worried. Her landing strategy was the first thing they tested at Beacon. She spread her arms and legs and felt her speed decrease substantially. She corrected her course to a tall building and used her scythe to slow herself down enough so that she could hit the ground safely.

* * *

Yang felt like she was done.

Her entire body hurt and she could barely keep her eyes open. It would be for the best if she retired to the medical tent.

She made her way there and checked up on Blake. She was unconscious, but the doctors assured her that she would be fine.

Yang wasn't sure she believed them, but there was nothing she could do either way. In the end, she got a serving of field rations, which she liked to believe were almost edible and chowed down on them.

She must have been incredibly hungry if the piece of unidentifiable tasteless matter she was chewing on tasted almost good.

She lay down on the ground after that. The sun felt really good.

She couldn't wait to get back to Beacon and take a long shower. She looked at her sleeves as if to confirm how horrible she must look, but her sleeve looked pretty good. She felt around her face and then used the camera on her scroll to look at it.

There was no blood. Why? Sure Grimm basically disintegrated once killed, but why would the blood already on her face disappear?

* * *

Roughly an hour had passed since Grimm entered the city. Ruby sincerely doubted they were going to last another.

"The tide of battle may turn yet again," Oobleck said after her landed next to her.

"Why didn't you mention you could fly?" Ruby asked. It would have been very useful.

"Because I cannot. I can accelerate quite exceptionally, though."

"A shame."

"Aren't you going to comment on what I said?"

"About the tide turning? No. At this point we're just waiting to be rescued. It's been an hour. Half the military force on this continent is about to show up any second now. Speaking of," she pointed at a bullhead that appeared on the horizon a few minutes ago. "It's a start."

Oobleck looked at it very carefully. "A start? Ruby, that is Ozpin's private bullhead."

"Is that so? I wonder who's on there."

As if on cue, people started jumping out. Ruby recognized team CFVY as the first on the ground, followed by Glynda and Port, as well as, to her surprise, Cinder, Emerald and Mercury and even Penny for some reason.

Ruby couldn't decide on who she wanted to look at. Coco's bag expanded into a massive Gatling gun which she used to start mowing Grimm down by the hundreds while the rest of her team defended her position. Penny swung around dozens of the same swords Ruby had already seen her use. Cinder and her team started randomly mowing down any Grimm they could see, while Glynda and Port headed for the hole the Grimm came from.

Ruby decided to go talk to Coco because she wanted to see that gorgeous gun, which Ruby would never ever be able to afford, from a lot closer.

She watched as the rest of CFVY quickly cleared the area and Coco stopped firing.

"Tch, damn ammo's too expansive these days," she said

"It's not because the ammo's expensive, it's because you use tons of it all at once." Fox, her partner, said.

"Oh? Do you not like what my gun does?" Coco asked, getting closer to Fox with a dangerous look in her eyes.

"G-Guys, could you not do this w-when we have company?" Velvet said, looking at Ruby. Why was she so nervous?

"Hi," Ruby said.

"Or in the middle of a fight, for that matter," Yatsuhashi added while in mid-swing.

"Well I'm not fighting," Coco said. "I cleared out a bunch of them, so be grateful for that."

"Should I take care of the rest?" Velvet asked, reaching for her box. Ruby had been wondering for a while exactly what was inside of it, but never got the chance to find out.

"Nah," Coco said. "Too overkill."

"You're one to talk," Fox yelled. "That was like half our funding you just wasted! In ten seconds!"

"You say wasted, I say used." She set her gun down gently and looked at Ruby. "Now, what can we do for you?"

Ruby didn't know what to say. The only reason she approached them was because she wanted to look at Coco's gun, but saying that would make her look weird. She had to think of something.

"Just wanted to say thanks for the help," she blurted out.

"It's kind of our job, you know?" Coco said. "But you're welcome I guess. Not a lot of people thank us."

"That's because they're all too scared of you," Fox said.

"But I'm not scary. I'm cool, funny, and have a great fashion sense." She pulled him closer by the collar. "Do you disagree?"

"I'm going to get going," Ruby said to no one in particular. They were all too caught up in their own antics to notice.

But still, Coco must have taken out over half the Grimm in under ten seconds. What a crazy weapon. She didn't want to make any assumptions about the owner, but from what she had already seen, the scales also tipped towards crazy.

Ruby decided to check on Penny next. She found her a little further ahead, killing Grimm. She used her swords to cut anything that got even close to being in range. The best part was that her range was so massive it was like she was covering half the battlefield.

Further ahead, Ruby saw Glynda using her semblance to try and plug the hole the Grimm were coming from with Professor Port, along with Cinder and her team protecting her. So far she had jammed a couple of cars and a lot of concrete into it, but they still kept pushing their way through.

Just as Ruby was wondering what she could do about it, Beacon airships mixed with Atlas and Vale military ones appeared over the horizon with Ironwood's massive airship leading them.

Seeing the sky darken from all of the aircrafts was almost funny. All of that military power and a bunch of students helped by local law enforcement managed to already deal with the threat.

The Atlas robots she had already seen started falling from the sky, followed by soldiers, who completely exterminated any remains of Grimm in the city in less than a minute.

The battle was won. All that was left was for the hole to get plugged up and they could all go home.

Ruby felt like she could sleep for a month.


	16. Chapter 20 - Aftermath

Blake slowly opened her eyes. Everything around her was too bright. And white. Why was everything white?

When she looked around she found out that she was in a completely white room. The walls, the floor and the ceiling were perfectly light and reflecting the light from the powerful lamps directly into her eyes. She had to close them because they started hurting.

Where was she, though? What happened after the battle? She didn't remember a thing.

A section of one of the walls opened and Ruby came through. She was wearing a strange mask over her face.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," she said.

"What happened to me?" Blake asked. She tried moving around but found out she was strapped to the bed. "Why am I tied up?"

"You have an unusually strong aura," Ruby said. "From what I understood, you never developed a proper immune system because of it. When you lost your aura you lost your only protection from disease and succumbed to what's called a common cold."

That made far too much sense. "That doesn't answer why I'm tied to the bed," Blake said.

"The doctors said that the drug you took can sometimes cause patients to become violent. They didn't want to take any chances."

"Is Weiss tied up somewhere too?"

"No. She's... you'll see."

"What is that supposed to mean? Is she okay?"

"She's physically fine, but lately she's been... I don't know how to describe it, she's just different. Withdrawn, quiet, uncooperative. I think I dealt with it, but I can't be sure."

Blake wondered what she should say. It was her duty to report what happened on the train, but Weiss acted like it never happened.

"Do you know something?" Ruby asked. She caught on quickly.

"On the train, she lost her fight," Blake said. "She fought against a massive faunus and wasn't able to defeat him." She felt her chest tightening up. Could this be considered betraying Weiss' trust? "Instead of finishing her off, the man chose to abuse her. Sexually."

Ruby's eyes widened visibly. "Why was I not informed of this?"

"I was the only one who saw it." Blake said.

Ruby walked around the room a few times. "Since you saw it you must have been with her directly afterwards. What did she say? How did she react?"

"She pretended it didn't happen."

"What do you mean?"

"She acted like she didn't remember."

Ruby scratched her head. "I don't know what that means. I don't know what to do. Was what I did good or bad? Did I just make it worse? I need to go talk to Ozpin or someone."

In other words, she needed an adult. Sometimes it was easy for Blake to forget just how young Ruby really was.

"Go, I'll be fine." Then she reconsidered. "Wait, let me go first."

But Ruby had already disappeared.

Damn it.

* * *

Blake was very surprised to find out who her second visitor was.

Jaune stood next to the door awkwardly and waved. He had a bouquet of yellow flowers in one hand.

"Hi Jaune."

"Hey. I heard you're awake and thought I'd come see how you're doing."

"Well, here I am."

"Yeah. Good to see you're okay. Why are you tied up though?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Blake said. With a bit of luck she could get him to release her. "How are you doing? What did you think of your first time in a large battle?"

He grimaced. "I wish people would stop asking me that."

"Why? Do you not want to remember?"

"I do, but maybe not right now. I saw some pretty gruesome things when the smoke started clearing, so to say."

"You'll get used to it," Blake tried to comfort him.

"In some ways that's even worse."

"True, but it's easier to deal with." She noticed that Jaune was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. "Let's talk about something else. How long have I been in here?"

"A week. Eight days, counting today."

Eight days. Her body certainly felt like it had been lying around for eight days. She couldn't wait to get out of her restraints.

"What's the official story about what happened?" Blake decided to ask.

"Official story?" Jaune seemed confused. The cover-up must have been very extensive.

"What did they say happened on the news?"

"That a supply train's breaks failed and it couldn't stop, crashing into the city. Are you saying that's not what happened?"

"Use your brain. If it was just that, where would the Grimm have come from?"

Jaune considered it for a second. "I don't know. Where did they come from?"

"The tunnel. If you haven't been told more then that's all you need to know."

He seemed to have trouble understanding that. "Why would they try to lie about what really happened?"

Blake wondered how much harm telling him would do. Probably not too much. Even Jaune knew to shut up when he had to.

"Because, Jaune, if they tell everyone it was a terrorist attack, the terrorists win. The entire purpose of terrorism is causing terror and by letting the population know that such an organization managed to flood an entire district with Grimm, that organization would gain a massive amount of influence."

"I think I get it," he said. "Not a lot of terrorists around."

"Exactly. Next time figure it out yourself."

Jaune didn't respond. Why was it so hard to keep a conversation with him going?

"Did we get some sort of awards or something?" Blake finally asked him. It was the only thing she could think of.

"Yeah, but they decided on waiting for you to get better before giving them out."

"Really? That's nice." The real reason was probably because they didn't want to have a parade or whatever right after the funerals for the people that died.

"Yeah, I thought so too." Of course he would.

"I'm guessing there was a party to celebrate winning," Blake said. That was how it usually went and she was morbidly curious about what she missed.

"Yeah. There were so many people there. Tons of hunters, military, police, you name it. Pyrrha and I hung out with Cardin and his team for the most time, but there were a lot of other people I recognized."

"My team?"

"They all went, but Weiss barely had her nose in the door before turning around and leaving. Yang stayed for a while."

Blake grinned. "Did they not let Ruby in?"

"Oh, they did, but she fell asleep almost immediately. Yang carried her home at about midnight."

"Guess she was tired, huh? I certainly know how she must have felt," Blake said. After all those things Ruby said to her, she pulled a stunt like that, huh? Well, it's not like Blake expected her to not be a hypocrite. "By the way, you couldn't untie me, could you?"

He hesitated. "I'm not sure if I should. Maybe I should go call a doctor."

Since Blake couldn't imagine why a doctor would keep her locked up, she agreed. A few minutes later a familiar woman with a white coat entered the room.

"Hey there," the Beacon nurse greeted her. Blake realized she must be somewhere in the school. "How are you doing?"

"Great," Blake said. "When can I leave?"

The nurse seemed surprised. "Oh my, am I going to have to keep you restrained? You can't leave in your current condition. Your aura has yet to start regenerating and if you go outside before that happens you'll just end up in the same condition you were when they brought you here."

How annoying. On the other hand, she did have a point.

"What is this room?" Blake asked.

"A clean room. You'll be relatively safe from almost all kinds of diseases in here, as long as you don't get too many visitors at once." She grimaced and threw out the flowers Jaune brought in. "Or someone compromises it."

"And I'll be stuck here until I get my aura back? When is that, by the way?"

"Unknown. The recovery period for the drug you used is around a week, but considering the fact that your aura is significantly stronger, my guess is that it may take up to twice as long until you're back to full power. Of course we'll let you out as soon as you're able to form enough protection to avoid illness and the like. Still... did you really need to use something like that?"

Blake also wondered that. If she hadn't taken it she would have struggled against Roman and might not have been able to save Weiss. Without Weiss, the defense aboveground wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly. Then again, even with it she was too late to really save her.

"Yes," she finally said. "At the time it was the best course of action. If I had known about the side effects, maybe I would have made a different decision."

"You took a drug that you didn't know the side effects of?"

"I didn't have time to think about it." Why was the nurse being so obnoxious about it? If she had been there, she would have made the same choice.

"And look at where that landed you."

"Spare me the lecture. Would you have been able to think about something like that if as far as you knew, the rest of your team was being slaughtered and you could save them?"

"I do not work on the field." The nurse said. "As such, I can safely say that I probably wouldn't have. However, you shouldn't lower yourself to my level. I'm just the school nurse. You're a defender of humanity. You have a far bigger weight on your shoulders and cannot afford to be as weak as me." The nurse blinked blankly, as if catching herself. "I'm sorry if what I said was too harsh. I am a simple nurse, not a warrior like you. But you shouldn't dismiss my opinion just because of that. Sometimes the outlook of someone completely different can give you interesting insights. Or something like that. Forgive me for rambling."

Blake thought carefully about her answer. "In the situation I was in, thinking about what the side effects may have been would only have been a waste of time. However, I do understand what you're trying to say. I shouldn't be content with my wrong decisions, even if I thought they were right at the time. In other words, you're telling me I should learn from my mistakes."

"Was that what I said? I must be smarter than I look." The nurse smiled and came over to her. She started undoing her bindings. "You passed the test. If you had gotten irrationally angry, I wouldn't have let you go."

Blake rubbed her wrists to get the blood flowing and sat up onto the bed. "So this was all a test?"

"No, but it served as one. You really are a strange girl. Confrontational when your decisions are questioned, but reserved when defending them. It's a wonder your partner doesn't hate you."

"Why?"

"Because she absolutely despises me."

* * *

Ruby paced in front of Ozpin's office nervously. What could be taking him so long?

"Come in," she heard and shot into the room.

"Hi, I have something to talk to you about."

"I figured as much. How long were you out there for anyway?"

"Doesn't matter. I need your advice on something."

"Well, it's what I'm here for," he said.

Ruby sincerely doubted that the question she was going to ask him was something he had to deal with often. "So, say that, hypothetically, a huntress falls in battle and instead of the obvious happening, the enemy chooses to... do something indecent to her." Ruby wasn't quite sure how to word it without being too blunt.

"You mean that hypothetical huntress was sexually abused? Okay, what about it?" He took that way too easily.

"Well, I mean, what would that huntress' superior do?"

"There is no established rule. That situation is actually rather rare, all things considered. Grimm don't feel lust or any other emotion that would cause them to do such a thing. The military, however, do have something."

He shuffled under his desk until he brought out an old textbook. "In the event of a soldier being subjected to any form of abuse by the enemy on the line of duty, be it physical, psychological, sexual or any other form, they are to be given a month of time off and to be told in no uncertain terms to, this part is in quotes, "Get over it."."

"What?! How is that going to solve anything? You can't expect me to do something like that. I'm supposed to support my team as much as they support me. Saying something like that would be the equivalent of throwing Weiss to the wolves. She would never trust me again."

"Is that not exactly what you did? Besides, there's more. Maybe I should read it before you make any assumptions."

Ruby nodded, almost too angry to speak.

"It may seem harsh, but considering that the psychological issues that can result from abuse can render a soldier unsuited for combat, it is generally considered best to have the person come to terms with what happened. By telling them to "Deal with it." you tell the soldier that you trust them to overcome it on their own. It would be unwise for the commanding officer to become too involved, since trying to guess what method of healing would work best on them could lead to further complications." Ozpin stopped reading. "It goes on to explain the different kinds of complications. They range from mild depression to full-blown psychosis. Then again, the same may happen even if you do exactly what it says here, but I personally believe the chance is far lower."

Ruby felt like she needed some time to process all of that. "Can I borrow that book?"

"Are you sure you want to? Some of the things in here are a lot more gruesome than what I just read."

"I just fought an army of monsters. I can handle a book." She outstretched her hand to receive it.

Ozpin handed her the book. "Take everything in there with a pillar of salt. It was written a few decades ago and about a military faction that no longer exists."

"Why read it to me then?"

"Because some of it is still very useful and that military faction were our predecessors as Hunters."

Ruby looked at the book's title. Grimm management and special ops taskforce leadership manual. "We come from a taskforce?"

"The concept of Hunters? No. The Hunters produced by the institution I am in charge of? Basically yes. The original Hunters were what you would call heroes who hunted monsters. A few here and there, roaming around and saving people. What the taskforce did was to take those people, train them, organize them, give them authority and set them loose upon anyone who dared threaten humanity's survival."

"And now we're here."

"And now we have a group of four trainees that can hold a city against thousands of Grimm for over five minutes."

"Four trainees and a professor" Ruby corrected him. "Back to the original topic, is there anything I can do for Weiss now? After, you know, what happened."

"Perhaps, but you should also consider the possibility of leaving her alone. Weiss Schnee does not strike me as a woman who would break under pressure."

"Weiss is delicate, but also strong. I don't want her to stop being delicate." Ruby found herself blushing under Ozpin's gaze. Did he misunderstand that? "There has to be something I can do that would help her move past this."

"There is a festival coming," he reminded her. "Perhaps simply having fun together would be enough. Treating her like nothing is different will give her the feeling that nothing is different and that she's not any different either." He paused. "To be perfectly honest, I'm probably the worst person to ask about something like this. If I was in your position, I would have probably damaged things beyond repair already."

"You're right. Some fun with friends is bound to be exactly what she needs."

"Or it might not be. You can never know, but I would give it a shot if I were you."

"Thank you. I should be going," Ruby said. "I left Blake rather abruptly and I also have some reading I need to do."

"Good day, Ruby."

"Good day, professor."

* * *

When she woke up, Blake noticed that Yang was in the room, reading a book.

Since when did Yang read books?

She then noticed the cover and realized that Yang had somehow managed to find one of her special books.

"Hey," Yang said, not looking up.

"Where did you get that?"

"Exactly where you hid it."

"Give it back."

"What, you don't want people to know you read these kinds of things?"

"There's nothing wrong with them."

Yang cleared her throat. "As his pulsing manhood penetrated her, she felt like she could never love anyone nearly as much. The feeling of him sliding in and out of her was like the feeling of heaven itself, a thousand angels showering her in pleasure. When he filled her with his seed, all she could hope for was that she would be worthy of carrying his children." She stopped.

They exchanged a very long look in complete silence.

"...It's actually pretty good," Yang caved in.

"I know, right?"

"Yeah, I loved the emotional depth" snicker "and the explosion" snicker "of their feelings."

"Oh, shut up. You wouldn't know good erotica if it hit you in the face."

"No, I agree that this is some pretty great smut, but I can't not make fun of you for reading it, you know?"

"I know. Why do you think I hid it?"

"True. I'm totally borrowing this, by the way."

"Of course you are. Now, how were things while I was away?"

"Pretty boring, actually. Tournament's being moved back because of funerals and tragedy and reasons. We still get a festival next week, at least."

"Festival, huh," Blake said. It seemed a little silly after what they just went through, but on the other hand, maybe everyone else who had a week to think about it thought differently.

"Yeah. Should be fun, I think. We could all use some fun."

"I don't know, I might feel better if I just take a break. Although, I do feel like I couldn't spend another couple of days in here doing nothing."

"So you want to go, but you don't want to go?"

"I was asleep for a week. Give me a break."

"I think it would be fun if we all went," Yang said. "It would help us form an even deeper bond, especially after everything that happened."

"I don't know if that's a good thing. Being too close could end up being painful."

"What do you mean?"

"If one of us dies, which isn't as unlikely as all of us would like to believe, it would be very hard on all of us, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah."

Blake would have never expected that response from Yang. She wasn't sure what to say, but was saved when Yang continued talking.

"You know, all of us got pretty close to death during the mission. Don't you think that's scary? Maybe you could keep a distance between yourself and us, but I can't. At this point the thought of losing any of you terrifies me."

Blake never realized how hard it must have been for Yang to see her sister take on the path to becoming a huntress.

She chose her next words carefully. "I'm glad. That means you'll do everything in your power to keep us alive."

Yang smiled. "Yeah, I guess I would."

* * *

When Jaune made it back to the dorm he was greeted by the peculiar sight of Pyrrha looking at a small box with interest.

"What's in there," he asked her.

"See for yourself," she said and pointed to the shelf next to his bed. On it there was another small box. "They came with the campus mail."

Jaune quickly opened it and inside of it found something small and gold.

"Medal of bravery, third degree," Pyrrha stated. "It's a big deal, apparently."

"Yeah, you could say that," Jaune said, trying to choke back the tears that were welling up.

"Why?" Pyrrha asked him. She must have noticed.

"Because this is... This is proof that I finally did something right. I did it. I'm not just that one kid that sneaked into Beacon anymore. I actually did something to deserve it. I... I feel like I belong here. This thing right here, it shows me that I can be a hero."

It was getting too hard to fight back the tears.

"I finally have something I can write home about with pride. It won't be I managed this move, I hunted that Grimm today, it will be an actual accomplishment. I'll prove to everyone that I'm not useless. I'll be able to go home and look at my family tree without feeling like a failure."

"I don't understand it," Pyrrha said. "Your family clearly loves you for who you are. Why do you feel the need to prove yourself like this?"

"It's a guy thing," Nora said, coming out of the bathroom. Did she hear all of that?

"Elaborate," Pyrrha said, turning to her.

"Well, he's a guy, so he has to prove himself as an alpha male if he wants to carry on the family legacy. Or something like that. Dad talked to both me and Ren about it a long time ago, but I wasn't really listening." She paused, looking at Ren. Wait, Ren was here? How did Jaune not notice him? Was his presence really that low?

"He was actually telling us about wolf mating rituals."

Jaune could practically feel his face heat up. Why did everyone have to pick on him?

* * *

Blake expected her next visitor even less than she expected Jaune and Yang.

She watched Weiss Schnee come into the room, sit down and take off her mask as soon as the door closed.

"How are you?" she asked.

"Never better. You?"

"Likewise."

There was a short silence between them, during which Weiss didn't do anything other than stare at Blake.

"Say," she said. "Would you like to get out of here?"

"I would rather not get sick the moment I leave," Blake said.

"You won't. The doctors here don't know a thing about how any of this works. They think you don't have an aura until one day you magically get it back."

"I take it that's not true."

"It isn't. Do you know how your mind limits your muscles' strength so you don't accidentally tear yourself apart? Well it does a similar thing with aura. The drug we took weakens that restriction, allowing you to force your body to produce more aura than you safely could, damaging your aura production cells in the process. After it wears off, those cells shut down and try to regenerate. You want to know the best part?"

"I would, yeah," Blake said.

"They are usually capable of producing aura in a few days after the fact, however they don't activate until they are completely healed. If someone was to, say, try to activate your aura the way you would a civilian's, it would start working. Then because of the way aura works, it will heal the aura production cells and you'll recover in a couple of hours."

"What's the catch? And how do you know so much about this?"

"I have a contact at the Schnee Dust Company who has access to nearly all kinds of information and the catch is that it will be extremely painful."

Blake considered it. This was nothing like the last time. She actually had an idea what she was getting into. "How painful are we talking and how sure are you that it will work?"

"About as painful as running electricity through your body. So, pretty painful. And as far as how sure I am, let's say fifty-fifty."

Those were most certainly not good odds. It also told her that Weiss didn't use it on herself.

"I'll pass," Blake said. She had no reason to rush things. She was going to recover anyway, even if she had to be stuck in this room a few more days.

Weiss looked disappointed. "As you wish."

There was something else Blake was curious about. "How do you have an aura to unlock mine? We took the drug at the same time.

"Less cells to regenerate," she said. "I could use some aura on day three. After my fight with Ruby, I forced my aura to activate and healed myself over the course of the next two days."

"How did you activate your aura? I doubt anyone was willing to help."

"Ruby would have, but I think you already know how I did it."

"Fight fire with fire?" So she had tested in on herself after all? Then why did she say fifty-fifty?

"Precisely."

Blake found herself admiring Weiss' resolve to do something that dangerous for no real reason. It was a very her thing to do, which led her to believe she may not have been as heavily impacted by what happened.

"Hey Weiss," she decided to say. "Do you remember what happened on the train? With your fight?"

"What do you think?" There went any hopes Blake had for an easy answer.

"I think you lied about not being able to remember." She decided to be blunt.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. One thing I would like you to consider, is that there exist people capable of completely erasing things they don't want to remember from their minds. They simply refuse to acknowledge that a certain event happened. That's pretty interesting, right?"

That was all Blake needed to hear. Weiss remembered everything.

* * *

"Hold up," Raven said. "Today we're going to try something different."

"Okay," Militia said and pulled the blindfold up.

"I'm going to fight Melanie," Raven said.

She said at the beginning that Melanie wouldn't need to change into her battle attire. Whatever. Militia turned around to leave.

"Where do you think you're going?" Raven's voice stopped her. Had she forgotten their names again?

"I'm Militia, that's Melanie," she said, pointing at her sister sitting at the sidelines.

"I know that."

"So what do you want?"

"To fight Melanie. Right here, right now. In Militia's body."

What? How was that even supposed to work?

 _Let me try_ , she heard her sister say inside her head.

 _Whatever_ , Militia thought and relaxed her muscles. Moments later, Melanie sent the command to tense them back up and keep her upright. She was entirely unsuccessful, losing her balance and falling on their ass.

Well, not quite, Militia was the only one who could feel the pain. Damn that woman and her stupid experiments.

"You're trying to control her body using your own senses," Raven said. "Even if you somehow managed to stand up, you would never be able to fight me." She paused. "Now that I think about it that would make a great future lesson."

 _I'm not sure I understand_ , Melanie said and Militia relayed the message.

"You don't have enough experience to manipulate a body from afar. You're going to need to put yourself inside your sister's body if you want to accomplish the task of fighting me." She sighed. "You need to take over her senses as well. How do you expect to even stand up if you can't feel her balance?"

Militia felt her sister plug into her senses, so to speak. It was a very strange feeling, although what Melanie felt was even stranger, having two sets of bodies and senses to deal with.

Melanie slowly got on her hands and knees, then experimentally took her hands off the floor to see if they would topple over. When they didn't, she slowly rose to their feet. She adopted a wide stance, so as to keep their balance.

"Now, stand on one leg, spread your arms away from your body and touch your nose with your fingertips."

"Fuck you," Militia said.

"Now, now, do what I say and you'll learn something invaluable. It could very well be what propels your semblance to the next level."

Militia didn't complain and very carefully lifted one leg. When they started losing her balance she put it back down and repeated that over a dozen times. Finally, she started to keep them there for longer than a second and went to touch their nose which was when she lost their balance and crumpled to the ground.

"Go on," Raven said.

Melanie brought them back up and tried again and again. After a completely exhausting hour for Militia's body and Melanie's mind, they accomplished it.

Raven didn't look impressed. "Now try speaking."

A few unintelligible grunts escaped Militia's mouth. On the third try they somewhat resembled real words.

Raven had a small smile on her face. "Now come at me."

Melanie was all too happy to oblige, but the moment she tried to kick it all went down.

"This isn't going to work," Raven said after looking at them trying to get up. "I've got a better idea. Militia, use Melanie's mind to control your own body to fight me. Do the same thing she did, only twice."

Didn't that mean it was going to be twice as hard? "This is getting ridiculous."

"If you master this, your combat ability will be comparable to mine and far beyond my daughter's. So how about you do something ridiculous?"

That sounded very lucrative and absolutely like something Raven would say just so that they would keep training. Militia grit her teeth and tried it. Melanie was quick to empty her mind as best she could in order to make it easier for her sister and Militia took advantage of that. She used Melanie's mind to enter her own body and tried to get up.

It was unbelievably easy.

Once the connection was in place, it was almost as easy as moving her body normally. She walked up to Raven and put her fists up.

"Good," Raven said. "Now, here's where it gets interesting. I want Melanie to do the same in order to control her body.

Melanie was incredibly confused. Since Militia was already occupying the part of her mind that sent signals to her twin, she couldn't use it to send other signals which would in turn have to go through Militia's mind, which was also occupied by Militia sending her own signal to Melanie's brain.

That was without even getting into the part about receiving different signals.

"It's impossible," Militia said, her voice almost sounding like her own. "Absolutely impossible. By going through her, I'm completely locking her out of her telepathic abilities."

"It's true," Melanie said. "I can't even hear her thoughts."

"It is possible," Raven said. "However you may be right that at your current level of ability it may be beyond your grasp." She stepped up to Melanie and looked at her closely.

"Let me give you a hint. You can start by exchanging control of your bodies at the same time. It is the key to this, however it still looks like you aren't quite up to it just yet. Here's hint number two. You can use the second thing I taught you one at a time to learn how to do the first at the same time. You can feel how Militia's controlling her body, right?"

Melanie nodded. It was her mind after all, of course she could.

"Now go ahead and disengage and then you try to take over her body again."

The second time Melanie tried to control Militia's body was completely different. She rose to their feet, then stood on one leg and touched the tip of their nose with their finger.

"See, now Militia needs to learn that and for the next week I want you to exchange bodies. At the same time, I want you to keep trying to do the one extra step."

"Is exchanging bodies going to be possible?"

"It should be," Melanie responded. "We could send out senses along with the commands and it should work."

Militia reached out to Melanie and took control of her body. It worked exactly the way Melanie said it would.

* * *

"What was all that about," Junior asked Raven later.

"With the way things have been going, there are two options. Either their semblance will evolve into some superior form of telepathy, or it won't and they'll figure out how to do it within the confines of their current semblance. The first one could be very useful, however the second would make them truly a force to be reckoned with."

"So why aren't you guiding them to the second option instead of giving them vague tasks?"

"Because shut the fuck up. Anyway, I have something better to talk to you about."

Junior wanted to complain, but also really wanted to avoid having to deal with a pissed off Raven. "Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I invaded my spawn's dreams last night and told her we had a lot to talk about. I forgot to set a time and place or something, so how do I casually show up without it looking like I'm stalking her?"

"First off, you are stalking her and second, since when can you invade dreams?"

"I've always been able to, it's a lot like crossing into a different world, except way more... dream-like. You should know about this."

"You don't mean..." Junior said, stumbling backwards. No way.

"Yeah, you didn't know? I even told you it was the real me."

"How was I supposed to know that wasn't part of the dream?" The gears in Junior's mind started turning. "Wait, could you take my dream self out through the portal you came in from?"

"If I wanted to kill you, sure."

"Kill me? How?"

"Well, for one thing, the moment you step out, odds are gravity will turn you into some very nice pizza sauce. Even if it doesn't, air pressure will. Even if that doesn't, you'll die in a couple of seconds anyway because your consciousness won't be able to draw its power of existence from your dream world anymore. Overall, transferring things between worlds is a very bad idea."

"But you can go in and out?"

"I have aura and a brain. I can also see where I'm going. Now, can we get back to finding a way to explain how I found my daughter and how I knew to help her on the train without looking like a stalker?"

"Like I said, you are a stalker."

"Irrelevant. I don't need her to know that."

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Tell her one of your contacts in the White Fang tipped you off about the train and that you asked the school where she was going to be."

Raven hit him lightly on the shoulder. "That's exactly what I wanted. Knew I could count on you for coming up with bullshit only someone as stupid as you would believe."

Junior groaned. Why did he help her? He should have known better.

He looked back at the twins staring at each other.

They must be having a conversation.

"Do you think they'll be ready?" he asked. "We have less than a year left. Maybe even less than six months the way things are going."

Raven looked at them as well. "They have a long way to go, but their power is increasing steadily. If they make a breakthrough here, they'll be useful."

"Good," he said. "I would have hated it if all that work was for nothing."

"I must admit," Raven said. "I was a little disappointed when my daughter managed to defeat the two of them back then, but I guess it was for the best. She gave them a reason to get stronger. I'll have to thank her."

Junior grinned.

"What?"

"You're singing a very different tune from a week ago."

"Shut up. Anyway, the way they are right now I'd wager even one of them is going to be able to fight my daughter to a standstill. A week from now I expect them to be able to devastate her in seconds."

"So the twins are going to have a task even harder than hers?"

"I doubt it. I hate to waste my investments." Something pissed Junior off about the way she said that. Actually a lot of things did.

"Are you saying that you'll let your own daughter fight in a more dangerous position than them?"

"Yes of course. In chess the pawns go first. If you have to sacrifice a piece wouldn't you rather it was a pawn than a queen?"

"And you're okay with that?"

"It is how it is. I guess my only other choice would be to mold my daughter into a better piece, but that would mean sacrificing some of the twins' training. Then again if things work out according to plan they'll be more than strong enough when they figure their semblance out. Worth a shot."

Junior wondered if she even remembered he was there. She usually avoided talking to herself when other people were around.

She must have realized it because she went away immediately afterwards. The bottle must be calling to her.

* * *

A few days later RWBY assembled in Ozpin's office.

"Normally, there would be a parade for your and everyone else's awards," he started. "However, it seems to be the consensus that bringing any more attention, be it positive or otherwise, would be unwise. However, I thought it would be fitting that I at least thank the ones that saved the city personally."

"It wasn't just us," Ruby said. "Everyone helped."

"Indeed, but as I said, we must be discreet. Thanking hundreds of people at the same time would raise too much attention to something that is best left forgotten."

"You're sweeping the problem under the rug," Blake said.

"Exactly." Ozpin didn't miss a beat. "The international council want to put the blame for the incident squarely on my shoulders and as such I would prefer that it didn't crush me."

"Why? How are you responsible for something like that? Do they think you can see the future or something?"

"Politics, Ruby. They want me off the council and will do anything to make it happen. But enough about that. We are here for a more joyous occasion."

"I could take some of the heat off," Weiss said. Everyone looked at her. "I can ask my father to pressure some of his contacts in the council into changing their stance. I'm sure I can persuade him and convert a few people to your side."

"There is no need," the professor said curtly.

"But..."

"No. You would act as a random element and could ruin my carefully made plans." He sighed. "This is what I get for running my mouth. James was right."

There was an uncomfortable silence no one seemed to want to break.

"Soo, you were going to thank us or something?" Yang asked.

"Yes, indeed. Yang, if you will please step forward." He took a medal out.

Yang approached his desk. "For your efforts in the fight to defend the city you are awarder with a medal of bravery, second degree. Thank you very much."

"Thank you," Yang said and stepped back, looking at her medal.

"Blake, if you will."

"I did literally nothing," Blake said. "I don't deserve one."

"You saved me," Weiss interjected. "One could argue that you saved all of us when you took the brunt of the train crash."

"It says in the report that you provided people with covering fire for as long as you were able," Ozpin added. "And also, I'm awarding the team. Even if you stood to the side for the entire battle, you'd still get a medal. Get over here."

Blake uneasily approached the desk. "For your efforts in the fight to defend the city you are awarder with a medal of bravery, second degree. Thank you very much."

Blake grabbed the medal and went away, leaving a puzzled Ozpin to call the next girl.

"Weiss, step forward please."

She did.

"For your efforts in the fight to defend the city you are awarder with a medal of bravery, first degree. Thank you very much."

"First?" Weiss asked.

"Yes. You could have gotten it by kill count alone, but the fact that you helped facilitate communication afterwards, in spite of the danger involved, was the thing that made us feel obligated to give this to you. It truly was an act of bravery."

"An act of stupidity maybe," Weiss muttered, but she took the medal.

"The two go hand in hand," Ozpin said.

The corners of Weiss' mouth curled up slightly.

"And finally Ruby," Ozpin called.

Ruby stepped forward readily. If she had to assess her own performance, she probably wouldn't even give herself a third degree, but she was sure Ozpin was going to do a lot more.

"For your efforts in commanding the fight to defend the city you are awarder with a medal of bravery, first degree and the title of Defender of Vale. Thank you very much."

Ruby was stunned.

"I don't deserve that," she said. "Didn't you read about all the times I messed up? If not for Oobleck cleaning up after me, the city would have probably fallen."

"And yet it held, under your command none the less. Doctor Oobleck did mention some mistakes you made, but the correct or even brilliant decisions you made more than make up for them. Temporarily fighting on two fronts to protect the city, the big Grimm hunters, the line adjustments, leading the Nevermores back to being in range of the turrets were all things you thought of before him, in spite of his experience. Do not sell yourself short, Ruby. You did fantastically for your first time."

Yang snickered in the background. Weiss hit her over the head lightly.

"How about all the horrible things I did? I threatened to shoot a pilot for no reason at all." Ruby said.

"One could argue that you had a very good reason for it. Coordinating the aerial support was by all rights a part of your duty, one that that pilot was denying you."

He had a point there. Things did go a little too well. "I-I think I can accept a medal," she finally decided. "But the title might be a little too much."

"I obviously can't force it upon you, however a title means that people will listen to what you have to say regardless of your age, profession or the hundred other things people can and will normally dismiss you for. I'd take it if I was you."

That sounded very useful. Very, very useful. "I guess I don't have a choice," she said humbly and bowed down to receive it.


	17. Chapter 18 - Adventures of the heart

"Why do we have to walk," Nora complained. "I don't like walking. Couldn't we have taken the airship all the way to the village?"

"No."

"But why? I heard other teams got taken all the way to their missions."

Ren suppressed a groan. The captain of the airship already explained this, but Nora never listened to those kinds of things.

"The village is nearby, so it doesn't make sense to risk an airship just so we can save a couple of hours."

"What risk? Nevermores don't stand a chance against me." Nora pounded her chest. So she was listening after all.

"Even so, if they swarm the airship the two of us wouldn't be enough to save it from going down."

"I guess," she said and fell silent. How nice and relaxing it was to take a walk outside the kingdom in the middle of the day like this.

He knew that taking this mission was going to be a good idea.

A small group of Grimm had been harassing a nearby village, so the village called to the Vale armed forced for help. They were apparently breeding aggressively in a nearby forest and were looking to expand their territory. It was decided that a team of hunters in training would be sent to exterminate them.

Ren looked at his companion kicking up dust on the road in boredom. She could probably do this mission on her own if she had to. If she didn't get bored and decide she didn't want to do it anymore.

"You know, a village like this could be extremely dangerous," he decided to say, spiking Nora's interest.

"What do you mean? Could the villagers be cannibals who eat any visitors? Or are they religious fanatics that sacrifice one of their own to ensure a good harvest? Or maybe it's actually a village of Grimm? They disguise themselves as humans by day and eat unaware travelers by night? That sounds awesome."

Ren refrained from pointing out that he said none of those things. "If they were Grimm why would they ask us to exterminate their brethren?" Please don't say Grimm civil war.

"What if they aren't the same Grimm? What if they're different factions, fighting over control of the village? They're going to send us to eliminate their enemies and then eat us. Then they can just say that we died fighting against their enemies. How perfect is this plan? It's like something I came up with!"

You did come up with it!

Having Nora enter the village, declaring that she knew everyone in it is actually a Grimm who's going to try to eat her probably wasn't the greatest idea, so Ren decided to intervene while he still could.

"Nora."

"Yes?"

"Grimm can't disguise themselves as humans."

Her eyes lit up even brighter. Oh, no.

"But that's what they want us to think. It's actually something they've always been capable of. In fact, what if they are all around us all the time? Perfectly disguised as normal citizens and one day they attack from within, destroying the entire human race in the blink of an eye."

"Nora. I don't want you to start an anti-faunus crusade."

"But I like faunus. Their ears are fluffy."

"Exactly. That's why you shouldn't say anything like this to anyone. Ever. They could misunderstand and get a lot of people hurt." Why did he feel like he was scolding a child?

Nora's gaze fell. "I get it. I don't have any proof either, so I guess it doesn't matter." She continued walking in silence.

Around nightfall, they saw the village in the distance. It was completely dark by the time they made it to the front gates.

"I don't like this," Nora said. "Something smells fishy here."

"No, it doesn't." Ren said.

"Yeah, it does. I know that smell. It's Grimm blood." Instead of announcing it like Ren would have expected her to, she whispered it quietly into his ear. She didn't really believe her own stories, did she?

"Nora, there is no smell and even if there was, I doubt you know what Grimm blood smells like."

"It smells sticky," she said.

"How is sticky a smell? Can you describe it?"

"Can you describe any smell?"

She had him there.

While they were chatting a small crowd had started forming around them.

"Forgive my companion, she has a very vivid imagination," Ren said. Why did he have to apologize for her?

"That's true," Nora agreed.

One man stepped closer to them. He was significantly older than the rest of the crowd. "Hello, you must be the hunters who were ordered here," he said. "I am the chief of this village. You must be hungry from your journey. Please join me and my family for dinner."

Nora looked at him suspiciously and opened her mouth to say what Ren assumed would be something extremely stupid.

"What's for dinner?"

Ren nearly fell down. Of course his companion would think first and foremost about food.

"I hope a chicken or two would be satisfactory for our guests."

"Chicken? I was hoping for something a little more exciting. Can't you get us some human sacrifices or something?"

"You can just pretend it's human meat," Ren said. At this point he was willing to say anything just to get his partner out of sight.

"That would never work. Chicken is distinctly a white meat."

"Just why do you suddenly want to eat human anyway?"

"Eh, I've just been wondering what it tastes like. I mean it's bound to be worth it if people are willing to risk jail just to try it." Nora said and to Ren it looked like the crowd took a step back. He couldn't blame them.

The chief stepped up. "You will need to satisfy those curiosities elsewhere. Cannibalism is against the law of this village."

Nora was about to ask another question, but Ren decided it was high time for him to put a stop to this. He did not need to know if under the laws of the village, a Grimm eating a human would be legal. If he was a gambling man, he would have bet every penny he had that that was the next sentence that was going to escape Nora's lips.

"It has been a long journey and we would be incredibly grateful for your hospitality," he said and bowed. After pushing on Nora's head, she did it as well.

"Follow me, then," the village chief said and led them to a humble house for that of a chief.

Inside, he took them to a room. "This is my daughter's room. She will not be coming home for a while so you can stay here. When you are ready, feel free to join us for dinner." He left, closing the door behind him.

"Why do I get the feeling something fishy is going on here," Nora said.

Ren sighed and started unpacking their supplies.

"Are you, by any chance, ignoring me?" Nora asked, poking her head over his shoulder.

"No. We need to unpack before we go eat and I'm doing that."

Nora jumped on the bed and gazed up. Just as expected.

"You know, I'm not kidding. There's something off here. Just look at this room, for example. It's supposed to be the chief's daughter's, who is not coming home for a while, but everything I see screams at me that she was still here a couple of weeks ago."

Ren looked around. She had a point. There was barely any dust on the shelves and judging by the fact that the room wasn't exactly neat and ordered, it looked like it hadn't been cleaned up for them.

"She's probably staying over with a friend. Or travelling somewhere." he concluded. "If you're looking for things that aren't there, you're going to see answers in everything."

"Are you saying there's nothing suspicious going on?"

"Exactly. We haven't seen a single thing that could lead me to believe there is anything out of the ordinary. No, your nose doesn't count."

"But I'm right," she sulked.

"You never are."

They went down for dinner without any more pointless conversation. They were joined by the village chief and his wife. Apparently their son was staying over at a friend's house.

Surprisingly Nora behaved herself.

Well, at least she tried. As soon as she saw a plate in front of her she went forwards to dig in, but Ren held her back. He waited for the family to say their prayers and then let her go.

"Pointless," he heard her mutter quietly enough that only he would hear her. He tended to agree, but he also wanted to keep them in good terms with the people who were letting them stay the night and more importantly, were going to be paying them.

"About your mission," the village chief started. "If the power of hunters is even half as much as they say in the legends, you should have no trouble with it. The forest to the northwest has been a home to many Grimm for as long as there have been records to check. For as long we have been suffering unending attacks from them. I believe that it is past time we took care of them which is where you come in. The Grimm are relatively weak and there aren't too many of them. I would like for this to be done as quickly as possible."

Nora let go of her fork and it fell to her plate, making a loud noise.

"You've let a Grimm breeding grounds exist unattended for hundreds of years?" She pointed her finger at the village chief. "Are you people idiots?"

The chief looked at Ren for help.

"I agree with my partner," he said. "Such a threat should have been obliterated with the forming of this village if it existed beforehand and whenever it appeared if it didn't. While I agree that it should be removed at once I find myself wondering if there isn't some reason why it hasn't been."

"You could be leading us to our deaths," Nora added. "How do we know there isn't some super Grimm in the forest that's killed any other hunter to attempt to kill it?"

"It is nothing of the sort," the chief said quickly. "You see, this is a very old village, with customs that precede the forming of organized hunters and squads that can clear out packs of Grimm like yours. The fact is that this village is inhabited by a lot of people who believe that nothing should ever change, lest it become worse, and as such have been fervently fighting against any major changes, including those that would make all of our lives safer."

That raised a very problematic question that Nora voiced: "Doesn't that mean we might face opposition from within the village? I think I speak for both of us when I say we refuse to kill innocent people who may stand in our way. If we run into anyone that tries to give us too much trouble, we could end up dropping the mission until this village has a better understanding of what it wants."

She picked her fork back up and continued eating.

"They are but a vocal minority," the chief said. His wife came in and gave them cups of tea. "Now drink up, this tea will relax you and give you pleasant dreams. Or so they say."

Nora sniffed the cup carefully and then happily drank it down. Ren followed her example and after finding no scent other than that of tea leaves and judging by the fact that Nora seemed fine, he took a sip.

It really was good.

"We'll leave the day after tomorrow before sunrise," Ren said. "For now I would like a day to go over our strategy and to prepare everything we will need. Also I feel it would be best for us to stay for a day and make it look like we are here staying with you in order to deter any people who may disagree with the way you want to do things."

"Someone might try to hurt you if we suddenly disappear after the show we put on at the entrance," Nora added. "If they think we're still with you, they may think twice."

"Please do not worry about me. The people of this village would never do anything to me. I am their leader in many ways and they still do not know the reason for your visit. Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to meet with them tomorrow, but you should certainly not delay your mission. Eliminating the threat is our first priority, after all."

"You are our employer," Ren said. "It would be very unfortunate for us if something happened to you. However if you are sure you will be in no danger, then we will certainly prioritize our mission."

"Please do."

With that the evening talks were concluded and Ren and Nora returned to their room.

"The chief's daughter was most likely killed by Grimm," Ren concluded.

"Yup. That's what I think as well." Nora confirmed. "It doesn't matter either way, does it?"

"It could mean that people will be a lot more hostile to us that he makes it seem. They may even try to get in our way."

"Trying is the best they're going to be able to do. But still, why do you think so? I mean killing Grimm is good for everyone but the Grimm. I can't see any reason for humans to oppose it."

True, but Ren didn't want to have to deal with the guilt over fighting innocent villagers. "He saw our reluctance of going against the villagers. Naturally he would lie to make sure we don't back out."

"That doesn't answer my second question. Don't you think it's weird that there are people who want to defend Grimm? You have to agree that disliking change is very weak motivation for going against the likes of us."

She had a point there. "So either we won't have any trouble or the chief is lying about why they want to keep the Grimm alive. Since there is no possible reason for the second I guess we won't have to worry about it. Still, we should try to get this over with as quickly as we can. I'm starting to regret choosing this mission."

"That's almost funny. On the other hand, I'm more concerned that he could have also lied about the quality and quantity of Grimm we'd have to face," Nora said.

"True. We should prepare for at least three days of fighting."

"Three days may be a little much. Remember that rumor about Ruby destroying an entire colony of Beowolves in minutes before she even got accepted into Beacon? If the chief is being truthful, then we may be dealing with similar opposition."

"We should always prepare for the worst."

"Are three days the worst you can imagine?"

"No, but if it's something that would require more than that we'll call in backup. Jaune and Pyrrha should be plenty rested by then."

"I was hoping we would get this mission to ourselves," she pouted.

"For now there is no indication that we won't. We should get to sleep. We have a long day ahead of us." Unfortunately the room only had one bed, meaning that Ren was going to have to spend the night on the floor.

"We could share the bed you know," Nora offered.

"That's okay."

"Your loss," Nora said and fell back onto the bed.

He wasn't really upset about it. Sleeping on the floor tonight should be a good way to prepare for the coming nights of sleeping in the woods.

"You know, they seem pretty nice," Nora said. She probably meant the family they were staying with.

"Do you still think they're Grimm in disguise?"

Nora turned to look at him from the side of the bed. "So what if they are? They're being nice, so I don't really care. If they try to eat us, I'll change my mind about them and wipe them out as well."

Ren didn't know how to reply to that, so he decided to go ahead and fall asleep before her.

* * *

Nora woke up to the sound of Ren getting up.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Early," Ren answered.

Nora got the feeling he was going to be a lot less talkative than he was yesterday. "It's light out," she noted.

"We need to wait for a shop to open so that we can purchase supplies," Ren said. Straight to business as usual.

"We could kill wildlife," Nora proposed.

"Too uncertain. Grimm could have chased off all other animals if this is a breeding ground."

"If this was a breeding ground this village would not exist," Nora said.

"You don't know that. It could be far away and have competent defenders."

"I didn't see any such people when we came in."

"Regardless we should get up. Go brush your teeth while I change and we'll go out and have a look around the village."

Was he actually listening to Nora's warnings? It usually took at a lot longer and a few people getting hurt. She picked up her toothbrush and went out.

Out in the hallway she found the chief's wife.

"I'll have breakfast done in a few minutes," the wife said. "If there's anything you need, please say so."

"Nothing right now," Nora said and continued to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth in silence, thinking about the situation she was in.

Everything around her smelled like Grimm. She had no idea if it was the village or the people in it, but there was something Grimm-like going on.

The family they were staying with feigned normality, but had two unoccupied rooms where the children should have been sleeping.

Finally, the villagers weren't nearly as scared as they should have been by their arrival. Nothing about either her or Ren particularly screamed good guy and she made every effort to make herself look like she was not a nice person.

She splashed some water on her face to try and wake herself up completely.

Not enough data, she concluded and went back to their room. Hopefully their trip through the village would give her something more to work with.

Ren was already dressed and went for his turn in the bathroom while Nora changed. She put her armor on and took Magnhild downstairs with her.

Ren joined her a few minutes later and they ate an uneventful meal.

Ren asked the chief's wife about where they could shop for supplies.

"There is a market to the south," she answered. "They will sell for lien."

"Good," Ren answered. "When does it open?"

"Around ten."

They continued eating in silence.

"Please rid us of the monsters on our doorstep," the wife said and excused herself. Ren and Nora went out into the garden with their cups of tea.

"You should remember her exact wording," Nora said. "That's a big hint if I ever saw one."

"Hint?"

"Obviously. "Monsters on our doorstep" is a very strange way of wording it, wouldn't you agree? It could mean a lot of things."

"Or it could have just been something she said. Not everything's a conspiracy."

"After all the things we've been through you should know better than to ignore vital clues."

"Don't you mean I should know better than to listen to a word you say?"

"That was mean," Nora said. If she was any less disciplined, she would have thrown her tea in his face.

"Maybe the truth is a little mean," he said. "But it's a fact. You always see things that aren't there."

"And you always ignore things right in front of you." Nora covered her mouth. She failed to think about how that was going to sound.

"I'm going for a walk," Ren said. He left his cup inside and walked out.

Nora went back in to see that the chief's wife had been listening in on them.

"Troubles of the heart?" she asked.

"More like the brain," Nora answered. "He never misses a chance to misunderstand everything."

"Are you saying you didn't mean to imply that he was ignoring your advances?"

"I did, I just didn't say it, if that makes any sense. We were talking about something entirely different and..." She cut herself off. This woman didn't need to hear her ramblings. "Never mind. I'll go find him and go shopping or something."

The woman smiled while Nora picked up her hammer and left.

Of course tracking Ren down was a piece of cake, but Nora chose to take her time doing it anyway.

It was nice, just walking around and it allowed her to take a good look around.

The village was normal. There were kids playing around, adults moving about in a hurried fashion.

Too normal.

"Something's definitely wrong here," she said to Ren when she found him.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you see it?"

"No. I don't see anything wrong here."

"Exactly. Like they say, it's too quiet. There should be something going on. People moving around more randomly. Why does it feel like the whole village is putting on a rehearsed show for us?"

Nora could tell Ren was planning on disregarding her opinion, so she didn't push it. He was never going to take her seriously until it was too late anyway.

"Let's just get it over with," she said and led the way.

They bought as much food as they could carry comfortably, stopped at the well to refill their water supplies and then headed out of town. On the way, Nora noticed that every window they passed was closed, with the curtains drawn. She tried to peek inside a couple, but Ren stopped her.

She frowned and stuck her tongue out at him, but she couldn't stay mad at him. He was just looking out for her, after all.

When they reached the forest they started the extermination.

Nora still felt some uneasiness in the back of her mind, but hitting things meant that she wouldn't dwell on it.

The day passed very quickly in a flurry of monotonous actions and soon it was time to rest for the night. They decided to make camp in a small cave that might have been previously inhabited by something. Nora didn't really care what.

"How are our supplies?" Ren asked.

"We should be fine for another three days. Maybe two. I'm pretty famished, but if we leave our bags here I shouldn't waste as much energy from tomorrow on." Nora bit into a piece of jerky.

"Let's avoid having to go back for more supplies if we can."

"That would be pretty embarrassing, wouldn't it? We tell them we're going to take care of it and then end up having to go back because there were more Grimm than we expected we would look pretty incompetent."

"Are you going somewhere with this?"

"Not really." She yawned.

"Eat your food and get to bed. I'll take first watch."

"Try not to fall asleep yourself," Nora said, suppressing another yawn. She hadn't noticed exactly how much this day had taken out of her.

* * *

The next day started off much like the last, only they woke up in a cave. Ren quietly got a small breakfast ready while Nora slept.

Since she was the main damage dealer out of the two of them, he thought letting her rest was probably a good idea.

"Hmm, ham?" Nora said in her sleep. An accurate guess.

"Yes." Ren answered.

Nora's eyes opened. "I love you."

"I know."

"Shut up. You know I was talking to the ham."

"That's what I meant." Ren said. This kind of conversation was getting all too common. The awkward silence that usually followed was even worse.

They ate in silence. To think that he was actually starting to miss Nora's playful banter.

"I don't like this," he finally said.

Nora looked up from her food. "What?"

"This. Not talking. Sure I'm not the best conversationalist and if given the choice would probably pick silence over talking all day, but this is just painful."

"Yeah," Nora agreed and continued eating.

They left the cave and when no Grimm emerged to try and attack them, in spite of the fact that both of them were practically oozing negativity, Ren started to get worried.

"There's no way we're done, right?" He said. "Unless that was the entire forest that attacked us yesterday,"

"It wasn't," Nora said. "Couldn't have been. Something's wrong. Do you think they could have attacked the village or something?"

"We would have heard or seen them moving." Grimm lacked the intelligence to sneak past them or know to keep their distance.

"Could they have run away?"

"I don't know. I've never heard of such a thing." This could be really bad. Unexpected behavior from Grimm was always bad. "The question is, do we go back to the village or do we look for them?"

"Village," Nora said without even considering it.

Ren found himself agreeing. They had to get the worst case scenario out of the way. "Village it is then."

They went back, got their stuff and made their way back to the village.

A very gruesome picture greeted them.

Just outside the village there was a mess of red things on the ground.

Next to him Nora whistled. "That's got to be one of the messiest deaths I've ever seen," she said and went for a closer look.

"Don't get too close," Ren said. He could feel the stares of the villagers on them, even if he couldn't see them.

"I have to get close, otherwise I won't know what killed him."

"You don't want to be seen next to a body that looks like that after the stunt you pulled at the gate."

She hesitated and then went back next to Ren. They waited for the villagers to come out.

An old man with a cane was the first to appear before them.

"The Grimm never attacked us as long as we never attacked them," he said. "You have doomed this village."

Nora stared him down for a couple of seconds. "So?"

"Do you not realize that you will be responsible for hundreds of deaths?" Another man walked forward.

"I won't. We're here to remove the nearby Grimm. I doubt a bunch of dead Grimm are going to cause you too much trouble."

"You fool! How can only two of you think to challenge the forces of darkness? It will spell the doom of us all."

Ren chose not to point out that he hadn't said a word to them yet. Instead, he was curious to see how Nora was going to respond. She was far better than Ren at this sort of thing.

"Forces of darkness? What is this, some B-grade horror film?"

"Why do you mock us at our hour of impending doom?"

"Because you're exaggerating. By a lot. Grimm may be a bit of a threat to people like you but to us they're like bugs we occasionally have to clean from under our boots."

"Your overconfidence will be the death of you."

"True," Ren interjected before Nora had the chance to respond.

She gave him a look that practically screamed "Whose side are you on anyway?"

"Overconfidence implies I can't back my claims up." she said to the men.

"You don't know what you're dealing with here. The Grimm will hide and elude you and then attack us the moment your back is turned."

Ren chose that moment to step in. "We don't even know if it was a Grimm that did that," he said. "We have yet to examine the body."

"What could it have been but a Grimm?"

"You'd be surprised," Nora said. "Now come over here and identify the body."

They clearly didn't want to move.

"Come on now, no need to be scared. I'm here to look out for you. Just take a look and tell me who you think it is."

One of the men, probably the bravest chose to walk up to the corpse.

"That is the village chief," he said. "Truly he got what was coming to him for bringing you here." The old man nearly ran away after saying that.

"We should carry him to his house," Nora said. "We could further examine the body there."

"His kids could be in there."

"So?"

"Don't start with me. Find his wife while I try to wrap what's left of him up so that we can move him."

Nora walked into the village and Ren got started on stuffing all of the body parts into one of their sleeping bags. When he was done he went in as well and found the chief's wife and Nora standing in front of the house.

"Let me see," the wife said.

"Later." Ren said. He hoped they could at least put him back together before the wife managed to get to him.

"But..."

"We need to examine the body," Nora said. "You don't want to see that."

They went to the kitchen, locked all of the doors and drew the curtains. It was a little darker than Ren would have liked, but there was nothing that could be done to fix it. Short of starting a fire. He quickly looked at Nora, hoping that she wouldn't think of it.

She looked fascinated by the body bag. Maybe she actually preferred that it was dark, since it would be spookier when she told about it.

"This is going to be messy," Nora said, suddenly snapping to attention. "If you feel like you might lose your breakfast feel free to leave."

Ren didn't respond. He started taking body parts out of the bag and put them on the table. Then they arranged them in a vaguely humanoid shape and examined them. There was barely half a person on there.

"The teeth marks on the bones tell me that whoever did this had a very big mouth."

"Probably too big for a Beowolf," Ren added. "And Ursa teeth aren't that sharp."

Nora looked at the body for a while. "Could have been done with tools."

"I don't think so. At least not with keeping him alive for all of the wounds to have blood dripping out of them."

"Could have cut off blood flow to areas they removed. It would have extended his life quite a bit."

Ren picked up what looked like a thigh. "We'd see bruising if that was the case."

Nora rummaged through the body parts, looking for bruises. "They could have kept parts so we wouldn't find them."

Ren looked at what was left of the head more carefully. An empty face stared back at him. He was a pretty okay guy, as far as Ren knew. Somehow that made him wonder if anyone would have wanted to hurt him.

"This was probably done by Grimm after all." He said.

"I don't disagree, but I don't think the villagers are innocent."

"Does this look like it was done by humans to you?"

"I never said it was. You know my theory on the matter."

"Nora, this is serious." He shouldn't need to remind her while they were in the middle of examining a body that had been torn to shreds.

"So am I. That village smells just as much like Grimm as this forest does. I know it sounds stupid, but it's true. There is something wrong there, but even if you don't believe me, ask yourself this: How did the Grimm get to the village chief? Why would he have come out here? Isn't it infinitely more likely that he was brought here and left for the Grimm to devour?"

As much as Ren hated to admit it, she had a point. Something wasn't right about this.

"Those old guys are suspicious," Nora continued. "They made it sound like killing the Grimm was a bad thing. We should be careful of them, but on the other hand they seemed pretty loose tongued, so it might be worth looking into."

Ren took a moment to digest everything. She was right. The village chief going outside in the middle of the night was a little too convenient. The old men of the village seemed to blame them for his death so being weary of them would probably be for the best, however making it look like they wanted to be in their good graces might give them a chance to slip up. There was still one thing.

"That's not really the problem. If that was it we could just finish the mission, call the cops and leave them alone, but the fact that the Grimm are missing is something that just screams trouble."

"Indeed," Nora said with a small grin. "However don't you think the two are connected?"

Ren briefly considered it. "I doubt it. As nice and tidy as it would be, there really is no way of tying them together without going into the area of your ludicrous ideas."

"But my ludicrous ideas are the only thing tying everything together perfectly."

"Doesn't matter how good they are if they're impossible. It would be nice to have one profound explanation for everything going on, but if that's impossible then the only other solution is that two unrelated things are going on."

"The fact that you don't like my theory doesn't mean you should get lazy. The Grimm disappearing and the village chief's death both happened at the same time. Don't you think that's too suspicious?"

"Coincidences happen."

"Do they? And let me ask you this, do they happen so often that you can just write this off as one. Saying it's a coincidence is basically ignoring half the facts. Do you think we'll get anywhere like that?"

Ren knew his partner was right but he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of hearing him say it. He was being lazy.

"What about this: The Grimm must not have felt as much of a need to attack us as something else. For example the fear from the attack on Vale could have just gotten to them yesterday. They moved out en-masse, passed by this village and killed the village chief."

"Doesn't explain what he was doing outside at that time. Besides, we saw no tracks to support such a theory."

Ren's head shot up. "We need to track down the Grimm that attacked him."

"Sure. If only I'd thought of that."

"And?"

"It happened on the road. There are no tracks. We could check the area and if we find nothing we'll know that whatever killed him came from inside the village. If we do find any tracks it will mean nothing since Grimm passing by a village outside the walls is hardly unusual."

"Depends on the type of Grimm. We already agreed that if it was a Grimm, then it was one of the rarer ones."

"Maybe. Or a really big Beowolf."

"Beowolves that big are rare."

Nora shrugged. "I'll go take a look then. You go ahead and start asking around. You know who to start with, right?"

Ren nodded.

"See you," Nora said and left.

Ren got up and washed his hands. Then he invited the chief's wife, who had been listening in on them, into her own kitchen.

She slowly creeped up to the table and stopped there. She reached out and took one of the chief's hands. Tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Ren walked right behind her so he could catch her if she fainted.

He wondered if he should say something. Then again, anything he said might only make her feel worse, especially if she blamed him and Nora for the chief's death.

The woman let go of her husband's hand and slapped both her cheeks.

She turned around and faced Ren. "Ask me anything," she said in as brave a voice as she could muster.

Ren had to admit he was impressed. "I could give you some time," he said.

"No. I want to see the head of whoever did this roll. I need to make sure it doesn't happen again before I can take the time to grieve."

Ren was a little taken aback. "Fine then. Does that mean you think it was a human that did this?"

"Of course. My husband was a very cautious man. He never went out unarmed, he never went out after nightfall unless he had good reason."

"What about last night?"

"Last night he came home, we went to bed early since we didn't know when to expect the two of you back. When I woke up he was gone."

"They either kidnapped him or lured him out somehow. Is the weapon he usually takes with him still here?"

She looked confused. "Maybe. I think so. If it didn't I would have known something was wrong a lot earlier."

"What do you mean?"

"He's the village chief. He sometimes has to go out at night in order to perform his duties. He usually doesn't wake me up."

"Check for the weapon. I'll wait here."

She quickly went out and came back less than a minute later.

"It's gone."

"So they probably lured him out. Chief work is a good way to do it."

He couldn't wait for Nora to come back and refute their theory with something stupid. Now, what came next?

Right. "Do you know who would want your husband dead?"

"The people opposing the cleansing of the forest are the first that spring to mind. I don't know how far they're willing to go, but anyone is capable of murder under the right circumstances."

"Anyone else?"

"Well, he had a few people who were against him marrying an outsider like me, but that's no reason for murder. At least I hope not."

"One of us will stay here to protect you at all times." Ren suddenly remembered something. "Was your husband the first to die to a Grimm attack?"

"Of course not. We're..."

"In your family," Ren quickly added.

The woman's gaze fell.

"Our daughter died a month ago. You don't mean..."

"It could mean there is someone in this village who has a grudge against your family. Call your son home."

Her eyes widened with fear and she bolted through the door. Ren heard the front door slam shut a few seconds later.

Did that woman not realize she needed him to protect her? He sighed and ran after her.

They reached a house and the village chief's wife... This is getting ridiculous.

"Wait," Ren said and caught her arm.

"What?"

"What's your name? I'm tired of calling you "the chief's wife" in my head."

"Sana. What does it matter?"

"Like I said, it's a little annoying having to use your husband's position every time I think about you."

She gave him a very dark look. Maybe it would have been better to wait until they were sure her son was safe.

Anyway, Sana marched up to the front door and started banging on it.

Another woman opened it and Sana demanded to take her son back. The woman complied with a scowl and sent a young boy out. The boy looked up at him and then hid behind Sana's skirt.

Ren didn't know what to say. He didn't think of himself as scary, but maybe there was a reason why that kid didn't like him.

"You're an unfamiliar face," Sana said. "You also dress very differently from us. It was one of the reasons we didn't want him at home while the two of you were here."

That made sense. Nora was probably going to be even worse.

"Let's go back," Ren said. "This place is too open. I can't protect you like this."

"Do you really expect us to be attacked in the middle of town in broad daylight?"

Not really, aside from the fact that Nora seemed to be rubbing off on him even more than usual.

"I have no reason to believe any different."

They hurried back to the house, the boy still trying to hide from him.

Sana tried to reassure him on the way, but he still wouldn't look at Ren.

They found the house the same as they had left it, with one small difference. Nora was back, sitting in an armchair in the living room.

"More than I could count," she said when she noticed them. "And no, none of them."

It took Ren a second to realize that the questions Nora answered were "Did you find anything?" and "Does it look like any of the tracks belong to what killed the chief?". Why she chose to answer before he asked, however, he couldn't figure out.

"So everything points to someone inside the village doing it?"

"Yeah. Except we still don't know why the Grimm fled a forest they have been inhabiting for decades, if not centuries."

"The two of you should go upstairs," Ren said to Sana and her son. "Yell for us if something happens."

Sana complied and Ren and Nora were left alone.

"Did I miss anything?"

"Yeah, remember the daughter's room? Whoever killed the chief may be targeting his family. We'll need to protect them until we figure this out."

"You're the babysitter."

He obviously wasn't going to leave them with her. "Fine. Now, about our other problem."

"You mean that the Grimm might be gathering their forces in an attempt to destroy us? Yeah that might be a problem."

"We should write to Beacon. Request aerial recon."

"Sounds like a plan. Although we may end up wasting more money than we get paid for this."

"Doesn't matter. These missions are more about students building up experience than making money."

"You know, I could send you up with my hammer and you could survey the area."

"I doubt I would survive that." Nora always seemed to forget how not everyone is as durable as her.

"Do we call for help then?"

"Yeah. If they did regroup and are planning on rushing us that would mean Grimm are using tactics they shouldn't be able to. We'll need to annihilate them before they can teach more of their brethren."

Ren took out his scroll, but found that there was no signal.

"Really? You know we need a wired connection when we're outside the wall."

"Silly me," Ren said. "Do you want to go out? There are some people around at this time so you could question them if you want to."

"Yep. And you are the babysitter after all, so I'm the only one that can do it."

"Just go," he said.

"Okay."

She went out.

Ren went upstairs and told Sana and her son that it was okay to come down.

"We need to clean up the kitchen and cook some dinner," he told her. Then he leaned in and whispered into her ear so that the kid wouldn't hear: "We'll bury your husband after dark."

Sana nodded and told her son to be a good boy and play in his room.

"Too far away," Ren said. "Here, play with this." He pulled out his scroll and loaded up one of Nora's games.

The boy barely peaked out to see him, but when he saw all the colors he couldn't look away. Ren extended his arm and the boy took it.

"Now what do you say," his mom asked.

"Thank you," the kid mumbled, already absorbed into the game.

Ren then looked around Nora's things and found her scroll. He connected to his own and turned on the front camera.

"Let's go into the kitchen," he said and showed his scroll to Sana.

She nodded and they went in. He propped the scroll up on a shelf and increased the volume until the child's breathing could be clearly heard.

"This should do. The moment we see or hear something wrong we can open the door and we'll be there."

"I don't like these things," she said. "But I agree that right now it is very convenient."

"We should talk about burying your husband. Do you want a coffin or will this be enough?"

"This village burns their dead. He was the chief so I don't think it will be possible to avoid it."

"We may need the body in the future to find out who the criminal was."

"It doesn't have to be immediate. I believe we could bury him in the garden and then dig him out for his real funeral. It will be unusual but I think I can get away with it since I'm an outsider."

"Even better would be to freeze the body and tell them you buried him. I know it's a little..." he couldn't come up with a word for it. "Yeah, but it might help the investigation if a real forensics team makes it out here."

"Do whatever you have to."

"Okay. Now, I imagine that once the news of what happened spread you'll have quite a few visitors. Try to turn them away as much as possible until my partner finds the person or people responsible for your husband's death."

They heard a knock from the scroll. Must be the door.

"I'll get to it," Sana said. "Come save me if you hear me scream."

"I'll take care of dinner," Ren said.

* * *

Nora finished her call and came out of the booth. First thing tomorrow morning, a team of bullheads was going to make a sweep of the area and find any pockets of Grimm activity. On her way back she noticed the men that she talked to at the gate with a third one who looked just as old and mean. She decided to stop and talk to them.

"Hey, just wanted to let you know that your Grimm problem is going to be resolved by tomorrow," she said. "Also, sorry if I was a little rude last time we spoke."

They looked strangely concerned. "Tomorrow?" Getting so close to them, she realized that they also smelled weird.

"Yeah. We underestimated the threat a little so the chief died. We won't do it again."

"Outrageous!" one of the men exclaimed, rising from his seat. "Not only did you cause the death of one of our own, but you keep provoking them? Do you not understand that they leave us alone if we leave them alone?"

"How long do you think that will last? Grimm instinctively hunt humans. No matter how much you bend over backwards for them, they'll still be an enemy of humanity. Or are you saying they aren't your enemies?"

The other men both put their hands on the third's shoulder and forced him to sit back down. The oldest of the bunch, the one that looked like there was no way in hell he should be still alive, said: "We are thankful of your assistance. If you truly can remove the threat we would be overjoyed, however we cannot know if you are truly capable of such a feat. Can you blame us for being concerned?"

Nora's instincts told her he was lying through his teeth, but she found no way to prove it. "I guess I would be too," she said and looked at them a little longer. "By the way, we've confirmed that the chief was probably killed by a human who used Grimm as an executioner."

All of them gasped in genuine surprise. Of course there was no way to really know if that was because they were surprised that such a way of murder would be used, or that Nora had figured out how they did it. However, if it was the second, then the pressure was on.

"Anyway, it's about time for me to head back. Nice talking to you all."

She turned and walked away. She could feel their stares on the back of her head until they could no longer see her. Perfect. Now all she needed to do was to wait for them to make their move.

When the house came into view there were a lot of people in front of it and the chief's wife looked like she was talking them into leaving.

Nora decided to let her continue doing it and tried to slip by the crowd as quickly as possible.

Going in, she found the kid from earlier engrossed in playing on Ren's scroll.

She figured Ren would be in the kitchen so she went in there.

"Kid's going to ruin my kill/death ratio," she told Ren. "Not to mention all of the games where losing has incredibly steep penalties."

"Aren't those your alternate accounts?"

"Doesn't mean I'm not annoyed by it."

"It does a good job of keeping him busy and letting me monitor him at the same time. Also, it's my scroll."

He had a point there. "Fine. You grind back whatever I lose because of this."

Ren didn't answer but continued cooking.

"What's for dinner?" Nora asked.

"Eggs, rice, salad. Those were the only things I found that looked edible."

"Whaat? Come on, I need something better than just vegetables. I need meat to keep my strength up."

"There isn't any meat. You're free to go out and buy some and cook it if you want."

"No way. You do it."

"I'm the babysitter. I can't go out on errands like that."

Nora was about to hop onto the table, but reconsidered. "You should probably clean this up too."

Ren made no indication to show that he had heard her, but he was going to do it.

"What did you do with the body anyway?"

He silently pointed at the freezer. There was a red handprint on its door.

"That was smart. You should consider becoming a serial killer."

"I think you know who my first victim would be in that scenario."

"I didn't think about that. You should definitely not become a serial killer."

She continued talking to Ren about whatever popped into her head until dinner was ready. Then they had a relatively quiet dinner and she and Ren went to bed, while the wife and the kid went into the room next to them.

"Are we going to keep watches?" Nora asked. It was weird to ask that while in a village.

"Obviously. The roof would be best."

"We don't want to scare off any potential attackers," Nora reminded him. "We're going to stay in the room with the curtains drawn and the lights off."

"Dangerous. If we're going to do that one of us should go sleep in their room."

"Yeah, I'm sure that kid's going to agree with that. Did you see the way he looked at me?"

"He's friendlier with me since I gave him the scroll to play on."

"Well I can tell you it's not going to be you that goes there."

"Why not?"

Sometimes Nora wished Ren could pick up on hints. "Jealousy. Shut up."

"Nora, this isn't the time or the place for jealousy."

"I know that. But I can't help myself. You basically spent the entire day with that woman. I can't let you spend the night."

Nora felt her face heat up. She had never been that direct. But still, she stood by what she said. She was definitely not letting him sleep with her.

"Fine," Ren said. "But you're going there. I don't care if the kid freaks out."

"I don't want to."

"It's either that, or we keep watch properly, or I go. Pick one."

There wasn't even the illusion of choice. "I'm going." She left the room and knocked lightly on the woman's door.

It opened a few seconds later.

"He just fell asleep," the woman whispered. "What is it?"

"I'm staying over," Nora whispered back. "To keep you safe."

"Can't you do that from the other room? You'll scare my boy if he wakes up."

"We can't. It's too dangerous. I expect the enemy to try something this very night."

Nora could tell the woman didn't want to let her in, but she also didn't have a choice. She opened the door wider and gestured Nora in.

"Please try to not make any noise," the woman whispered in Nora's ear.

"I'll just go to sleep in the corner over there." She was lying, of course. No one was going to sleep tonight.

The wife sighed and went back on the bed. She hugged her son and soon her breathing normalized.

Nora knew that on the other side of the wall she was leaning on, there was Ren who was also not sleeping. It was in times like these that she wished she had learned Morse code or something. She could just imagine the two of them communicating through the wall all night, talking about nothing in particular.

It probably wasn't healthy to fantasize about things like that, but Nora just couldn't help herself. It was a nice fantasy.

Nora was startled by the chief's wife suddenly shaking her. What did she want?

"Do you smell that?" she whispered.

Nora could, indeed, smell it. "Smoke. How long was I out?"

"I don't know, I just woke up myself."

Nora banged on the thin wall that separated her and Ren, but was distracted by something breaking the window.

A Beowolf forced its way through and leaped on top of her. A second Beowolf forced its way through the window at the same time that Ren crashed through the wall and stood in front of the chief's wife in order to defend her.

"Don't move, Sana," he said to the woman.

The Grimm on top of her tried to take a bite out of Nora, but she didn't really care enough to stop it. She just looked as Ren quickly sliced off the head of the other one that started going for the woman, and then looked out the window as if Nora wasn't in a predicament.

It didn't really matter, she decided. He knew that a Beowolf was about as dangerous to her as a mosquito and must be wondering why she hadn't killed it already.

She did just that, the burnt fur burning in her nostrils, and got to her feet.

"Please tell me you smell that," she said.

"Yeah. House is on fire. We're going to need to get them out through the window."

That reminded Nora. She looked around and saw the kid was in something between shock and hysterics. "He's all yours," she told Ren and picked the woman up. Wait, not the woman. Sana. Why did Ren know her name anyway?

She decided there were more pressing concerns and jumped out of the window with Sana in her arms. She landed smoothly and let her go. Ren followed a few seconds later and the kid ran to him mom as soon as he hit the ground. Then he started crying at volumes Nora was sure the whole village could hear.

However, there were far more pressing concerns. She looked around but didn't see anyone trying to escape. On the contrary, people were coming to try to help.

"Can you still say there's nothing fishy going on?" she said to Ren. "You know what an attack like this means, don't you?"

"No." He said. "I refuse to believe that there is a world in which you were right all along."

"Let's put the fire out first," she said and raised Magnhild in grenade launcher form.

"What are you doing?" the woman asked her.

"Explosions put out fires," Nora answered calmly and aimed up. Ren put his hand on top of the barrel and pushed it back down.

"There should be a considerable amount of ice dust in the refrigerator. We can use that to put the fire out."

"Booring," Nora said and went in. She found the kitchen and started pulling the metal off the refrigerator until she got to the dust reserve. Good thing these things were made to run for years without recharging.

She pulled out the huge ice dust battery and broke a little of it off. She then broke it up further and threw it around her.

The fire started dying down. She took a big chunk, put it in one of the shells for Magnhild and, before anyone could stop her, went out and fired it above the house. Ren seemed to have guessed her plan because he shot the round while it was in the air, which caused a massive amount of cold and wet things to go down and put out fires everywhere they touched.

The house was a little banged up, though, what with the ice spikes sticking out of the roof and everything.

"You know, if you weren't in that much of a hurry I would have shot it with an explosive and it would have been a gentle snowfall instead of this," she said to Ren.

"I didn't know it was ice dust you were shooting," he said. "I thought you hadn't managed to find any, got bored and decided to go with your initial plan."

"Eh, I wouldn't not have done that. Your plan was just relatively easy."

She noticed that a sizeable crowd had formed around them. Perfect.

"Now," she said while transforming Magnhild to warhammer mode. "Would anyone like to confess to setting this house on fire?" She brought the hammer down, which raised a lot of dust, which got in everyone's eyes. "I'll be nice if you admit it. I'll make sure you get a fair trial."

She looked all of the people over carefully, looking for any tell.

Then out of nowhere, Ren caught her shoulder. "I didn't get the chance to tell, you," he said, "but I actually saw who started the fire."

"Why didn't you say something? You're making me look stupid." she said quietly.

"When was I supposed to say it? While we were falling from the second floor?"

"For example. Anyway, who is it?"

"I want to know as well," Sana said and joined them, dragging her crying son with her.

"Those two guys." Ren said and pointed at two young men, probably in their early twenties, who were wearing all black. Normally, that would have been a dead giveaway, but black clothes were very common in this village.

"How do you know?" Sana asked.

"It's his thing." Nora answered and then raised her voice. "Witch hunt is over everyone. All of you but those two go back home. As or you..." she turned to the two arsonists. "I dare you to run."

It doesn't need to be said that they stayed in place.

"What do we do with them?" Sana asked.

"We won't do anything with them. You're going home. Ren and I are going to interrogate them."

"But..." her son pulling on her skirt cut her off. She seemed to reconsider. "As long as you keep protecting us. If not for you in our room, we wouldn't have survived tonight."

"She's right," Ren said. "If the enemy hasn't given up by now, they're probably getting desperate."

"Doesn't matter. We don't need to use them as bait anymore. We can switch from hunted to hunters using these two. Although I guess it would look pretty bad if we let them die now. Let's go back to the house."

The house still smelled of smoke, but there was no fire. In fact, it was very cold inside.

"Let's sit them down over there," Nora said and pointed at the dining table. Then she changed her mind. "Now that I think about it, we don't want to make too much of a mess here. Let's carry the chairs to the kitchen and we'll tie them up there."

Ren carried the chairs and Nora herded the prisoners. Then they tied them up.

Ren pulled Nora aside to whisper in her ear. "Are you sure you're up to this?"

"Don't worry. I've seen dad do it a thousand times against guys a lot tougher than this. It'll be a breeze."

She turned to face her prisoners.

"We'll never talk," one of them said. "You can go ahead and torture us, but we won't say a word."

The other nodded. He looked too afraid to speak.

"In interrogations like these, you usually only need one person," Nora said. "So they usually start by flipping a coin and choosing which one of you to dispose of."

The effect of her words was obvious. They started pulling on their ropes and screaming. Nora hit them both lightly to get their attention.

"I don't like that method however," she continued. "Because you could always get one of those zealot types that get off on dying or being tortured for what they believe in. So I usually avoid it, unless of course my prisoners start making too much noise. Then, I just reduce the volume. After all, everyone knows that when you're being tortured for information, the moment you open your mouth you've already lost."

Both of them shut up. It was funny, so Nora laughed.

"Hey listen, how about you guys save yourselves some pain and tell me what I want to know. You know what? I'll even tell you the questions I want answered. First one: How did you make a Grimm climb through a window and attack a specific person? Second: How did you move the main horde so that we wouldn't find them? Third: Are you in any way part Grimm?"

They visibly swallowed at the last question. Perfect.

"We... we don't know anything. We were just told to... light the house on fire. That's it. We don't know anything else."

"Is that so?" Nora asked the quieter one.

He wouldn't answer.

"Hey, I asked you something. Why don't you answer me while you can still walk? Is it true that you don't know the answers to any of my questions?"

"N-no," he said in a weak voice.

"I didn't catch that. You'll have to speak up," Nora said while looking at the other one.

"No, it's not true."

"Why'd you say that you idiot?" the other one yelled.

"She would have killed me if I didn't. She would have known if I was lying."

Nora patted the quiet one's cheek and looked back to the other. "Good boy. Now, you, how about we try again?"

"Go ask the squealer over there. I ain't telling you shit."

"Now that would just be boring. You see I went into this with the intention of torturing someone and if I do him it'll be over all too quickly, don't you agree? I like to have fun with that sort of thing."

Just then someone knocked on the door. Ren left to open it without needing to be told. That was actually a pretty important part.

Nora just stared them down until Ren returned with their visitor. It was one of the old men she knew all too well.

"I heard that two of our villagers are being detained against their will. I cannot allow that to continue."

Oh, he was going to be boring? "They tried to set this house on fire. Don't you think an interrogation is perfectly in order?"

"That is for the county sheriff to decide. Now release them!"

"First off, let's drop the act. Second, what gives you the idea that you can give me orders in your current position?"

"I am one of the elders of this village and I demand that you leave this instant. You are a threat to our very lives."

Nora walked up to him until their faces were a couple of centimeters away. "Like I said, what makes you think you can give me orders? Huh?"

He stepped back, nearly tripping on himself. "You dare threaten your elders like that? Do you kids have no honor?"

Nora decided that she had had enough. "You're wasting my time. I have three questions for you. Answer them and I'll release your precious villagers."

"Tell me your questions," he said. "So that we may be rid of you, foul beast."

"Language. Watch it. Now, for the first one: Are these kids Grimm?"

"Of course not. What nonsense is this?" She checked the reactions of the guys who were tied up. He probably wasn't lying. At least not too much.

"Good. That leaves me only one more question I want answered. How do you communicate with the Grimm?"

"What is with these questions? Communicating with Grimm? That's impossible and you know it."

"Your operation tonight involved both Grimm and humans. In order for them to have worked together, they must have communicated. I'm asking how."

"Are you out of your mind? What operation? They were just two kids doing something dumb for fun."

"Hey," Nora said and picked him up by the front of his clothes. "Didn't I tell you to drop the act? It doesn't even matter anymore, does it? My support will be here any second now and they're going to tell me exactly where to find the Grimm. You've already lost. The only thing left for you to do is spill the beans and hope people forgive you."

The man took far too long to decide for a decision that had only one answer.

"Let the boys go. And then, I will talk."

"Okay," Nora said and let him fall to the ground.

She untied her captives. "Let me give you a tip for next time. Don't stick around at the scene of a crime you committed."

"Right," the talkative guy said and they both pretty much ran away.

"So," Nora said. "How about that talking you promised?"

The old man sat down on a chair, looking at his hands. "First, I need you to promise you will not hurt anyone in this village because of what you learn here."

"I can't do that." Nora said. "But you don't really have to worry. I don't have any sort of bias against Grimm if they can be civil. Hell, I'm sure Vale would be willing to make a deal with Grimm that can communicate with them."

"That doesn't mean we'll be safe."

"It's not like I can give you a guarantee. However I will tell you that you'll have more control over what happens if you cooperate with us here. You see tomorrow, or later today as it may be, we will find where the rest of the Grimm are hiding and if we are unsuccessful in communicating with them, we'll just slaughter them. However the interesting part comes after that. If we don't find anything we're going to need to investigate this village. And trust me, you won't like the way we'll do it."

"I will tell you everything then. And hope for the best."

"Please do," Ren said, speaking for the first time in a while.

"Very well. It all started about two hundred years ago. Our village was under siege by Grimm and we probably weren't going to make it. Things were different back then. There weren't any hunters around to protect villages, so a Grimm attack usually meant that only those that fled had a chance of survival. Of course they aren't the ones that matter here. The ones that stayed behind and fought are."

He stopped and placed his hands on his wrinkly face, as if he had a headache. Unsurprising, considering everything.

"Back then, there was a brilliant commander." He continued. "He realized that the only way to defeat them would be to find a way to reason with them. He thought that even if they are beasts, beasts can be tamed. One night he went out with a group of his finest men and brought back an alpha Beowolf. They locked it up and spent weeks destroying its mind and turning it into an obedient pet. Then they built armor for it, trained it to fight and sent it out against the other Grimm. However Grimm can't fight Grimm. There's something in their nature that prevents it. The Beowolf our ancestors sent out instead of returning to normal somehow shared what it had learned from us and soon a whole horde of them arrived in front of the village. I don't think anyone knows exactly what happened, but the Beowolf had returned to its former nature, and yet not completely because it wouldn't attack. I wasn't born yet, but I imagine it as the group of villagers and the horde of Grimm staring each other down for hours. Then, the Beowolf walked forward and sliced its own wrist, offering the humans to drink its blood. At the same time, the hero who caught it understood what was going on and went to the Grimm and let himself be devoured."

There was a short silence while Nora tried to make sense of that story.

"I don't get it," Nora said. "Why did any of that happen? Shouldn't the Beowolf have wanted to kill the people who kept it prisoner and brainwashed it?"

"I don't really know. A lot of the details have been lost with the time. After that our village and the Grimm continued the tradition of exchanging a villager for a Grimm and feasting on them. The villagers never attacked the Grimm and the Grimm never attacked the villagers. There was a sort of understanding between us."

"So how does that explain the Grimm that attacked us tonight?" Nora asked.

"Of course, we did not eat the Grimm that was offered to us as sacrifice. Instead we repeated the brainwashing process and did the same for every other that we acquired. There are over a hundred Grimm under this village, all of them under our absolute control."

"That certainly explains the smell," Nora said. "So you have a nice big army that just keeps increasing, on top of the Grimm outside who would attack any humans that would do you harm, or convert any Grimm that wander into their territory. Now let me guess something else, the last sacrifice was the village chief's daughter, something that neither he, nor his wife agreed with. He decided that having to give up one of the villagers every year was too much to ask and wanted to end the contract. And that's where we came in."

"Yes. You can see now why killing the Grimm would cause irreparable harm to this village. I urge you to reconsider."

"Not going to happen," the village chief's wife who had been watching from right behind the door said. "You murdered my husband and daughter. You'll all burn."

"Calm her down and get her away from here," Nora told Ren.

He shook his head. "I want to hear the rest."

She turned to her. "Then you stay quiet until we're done with the questioning. We're not making any decisions just yet."

"I've stayed quiet this long. These men took my husband and daughter away from me. I want them to pay."

"They will," Ren said. "But your revenge will be rather underwhelming if you limit yourself to just one man. Give us another fifteen minutes and he'll be all yours."

"Fine," she said and continued staring at him.

"Anyway," Nora said, wanting to get back on track. "About the chief, you used your brainwashed Grimm to attack him, right? Old ones too, for them to be as big as we found out they were."

"Yes. It was actually somewhat difficult, since they have been trained not to attack anyone from this village."

"Attacked us pretty easily." Sana said.

"You are an outsider. They wouldn't have attacked your boy."

"Why? How can they tell?" Nora asked.

"They can somehow sense the fact that we drink Grimm blood. I don't know how, but they would never attack us unless we provoke them."

"So that's why they didn't want to answer about being Grimm. Anyway, how did you get your pets to attack the chief?"

"Simple really. He attacked them and they retaliated." So they bluffed him out. Or maybe the chief didn't know that he was safe.

"What about the main pack? How did you move them?"

"We nearly led them by the hand. Their intelligence is barely higher than a dog's. There's only so much they can be taught."

"So it would be more accurate to say that you trained them, rather than brainwashed?"

"I suppose. Semantics isn't my strong suit."

Ren and Nora exchanged a look. Training Grimm could be a huge breakthrough.

"Stay here," Nora told the man and pulled Ren out of the kitchen.

"You are too good at this," Ren whispered to her. Nora tried to hide her blushing face.

"I don't know if I would have actually gone through with it, though. We were very lucky we didn't get someone who wouldn't have been scared this easily."

"True. So, what do you think we should do about this?"

"Isn't it obvious? This could be the way for us to have a way of controlling the Grimm. You know what has to be done."

"Yeah. You make the call."

"I was going to. But still, I'm kind of mad I was wrong. Wouldn't it have been cool if I managed to predict what was going to happen before we even set foot into the village?"

"The fact that you actually smelled the Grimm is impressive enough on its own. If you weren't here I don't know if I could have figured it out."

"Doesn't matter now," Nora said. "Although the drinking Grimm blood part was interesting. If that makes them not want to attack you, you can bet we're going to put it in the pipes or something."

"Grimm blood disappears when not inside a living being," Ren said. "For all we know, people might have already known about this and not have done anything about it because of those limitations."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough. Go ahead and let him go." Nora said and went out. She had a long conversation ahead of her.

* * *

"I can't believe you just let him go," Sana said in an empty, defeated voice.

"He has nowhere to hide. Don't think any of them will be getting away with it."

"What do you think the authorities will do to them? The sheriff is probably in on this. They're going to get a slap on the wrist and this whole thing is going to get buried."

"Do you really think we're going to call the local authorities? As horrible as all of this is, it's big. A huge breakthrough. It could end up making the Grimm into a non-threat. Come morning this village is going to be crawling with hunters, military and scientists. The military aren't very forgiving of people who would offer their own sons and daughters as a tribute to Grimm."

Sana looked away. Maybe mentioning that last part in front of her was a mistake. Her husband wasn't even buried yet and she was starting to doubt it.

"Even if he did know, that doesn't mean he agreed with it," Ren tried to comfort her.

"He still knew. He allowed it to happen. He was away on chief business that night. In reality, he was feasting on Grimm blood bought with his own daughter's life."

"I don't like speaking ill of the dead," Ren said. "Because they are not here to defend themselves it just feels wrong."

"Neither do I, but I can't help it. What if he really wasn't the man I married? The man I had two children with?"

Ren didn't know how to answer that. "You should remember him in his best light," he finally said. "It will be easier."

"It is not easy. Remember how that elder said the Grimm wouldn't have attacked my boy, right? What about that? The only possible answer is that my husband fed him the blood of a Grimm. How am I supposed to still see him as a good person?"

"The Grimm blood would have protected your kid," Ren said. "Your husband was trying to help."

"He still forced a child to drink the blood of a monster. Who knows what it could have done to him. I think I might be better off if I accept that my husband was a horrible person."

She probably wasn't wrong. "You know, I actually think that deep down we're all horrible people. Even Nora and I. Especially us. The truth is that if she wasn't able to torture those boys, which is a pretty big if on its own, I probably would have."

"They deserved it," she said.

"No, they didn't. They were just some kids the elders paid to set fire to the house in order to destroy the evidence. But they were our only lead."

Sana seemed to wonder about it for a while. "The difference is, you didn't actually do it. My husband did a lot of horrible things. Imagine how many murders in the form of sacrifices he helped cover up while we've been married."

She was probably right. Ren wasn't really sure why he was even arguing with her. Still, he didn't want Sana to tell her son growing up that his father was a horrible person.

"From his perspective, he was protecting this village. For all we know, if they missed a sacrifice the deal might have been broken and the Grimm might have attacked, killing everyone in this village. I'm not saying sacrificing a villager every year is an acceptable solution, but if it's the only choice you have... well I don't know if would have done anything different in these circumstances. And let's not forget he was the one that called us here. In the end, he did the right thing."

"He could have done it as soon as he became chief."

"There would have been even more opposition. He lost his life now, imagine what would have happened back then. He was probably too afraid for his family."

Sana's gaze fell. "Why are you doing this? I just want to hate him so I won't have to feel the loss. Is that so wrong?"

Ren was ninety percent sure his next words were going to make her cry, but he had no choice. "Do you even need to ask?"

The sound of soft crying filled the room. Ren really wished he was anywhere else, but he stayed.

Nora's return almost an hour later marked the exact moment Sana stopped crying. She must not have wanted to appear weak in front of her for some reason. Or maybe she didn't trust her as much as she did Ren. Judging by the look on Nora's face, she thought it was the second.

"So?" Ren asked.

"All done. They'll arrive sometime in the morning." She turned to Sana. "You might want to leave before they decide to quarantine this place."

"Where am I supposed to go? I don't have money and I'm sure I won't be able to sell this house."

"Rent. Get a job. Maybe use daycare for the kid. With those three bits of wisdom you could live anywhere."

"What is going to happen here," Ren asked.

"Well, military's going to step in. I think some bigshot from the front lines is going to come here and oversee it. They're going to figure out the brainwashing process and try to replicate it. They also said they'd look into the Grimm blood issue as well. Oh, and they're going to declare martial law, so you can expect quite a few people to hang for their crimes."

"That's good, I guess," Sana said. "I'm going upstairs. I need to pack some things and get ready to leave."

"We should sleep," Ren suggested. He really didn't realize how tired he was until he said it. "I'm a light sleeper, so if anything happens yell and I'll be there."

Nora shot him a murderous look. This was getting annoying.

They went upstairs and through the ice spikes to the room they were assigned.

"You know, we could sleep anywhere we want," Nora said and yawned.

"This is fine," Ren said.

Nora lay on the bed and Ren took the floor.

"There's plenty of room up here," Nora said. "We've both had a hard enough day. You don't need to sleep on the floor."

Ren hesitated, but then decided that it couldn't matter less. He got in bed and was asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

He woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the front door. Or maybe beating on it would be a little more accurate.

Sana and her son were nowhere to be found upstairs and when he went down he concluded that they weren't in the house. He was glad she had taken Nora's words to heart, but she could have at least said goodbye.

He opened the door and came face-to-face with a woman taller and broader than him or even Nora. They shook hands and Ren wondered if she was actually trying to break his hand.

She waltzed into the house like she owned it, threw the massive rifle she carried on a table and looked at Ren.

"We'll be taking over from here," she said. "You and your team can go home."

"I would like to know if anything happens with what we found here," Ren said.

"Will do. You did a good job so far."

"Thank you."

He went up and woke Nora up and then they said goodbye.

"I like her," Nora said once they were back on the road.

"She's the only person I've ever seen who carries around a bigger gun than you."

"I heard a rumor that one of our seniors actually carries around a Gatling gun with her everywhere."

Ren wondered what drew women to having really big guns. Then he decided he didn't want to know.

"You know, that was the village I was born in," he said. He wasn't sure exactly why he brought it up, but for some reason he thought it wouldn't have been fair to Nora if he didn't tell her.

"Really? How do you know?"

"Dad told me a while ago that I was brought to his doorstep by a woman on the verge of death. That woman escaped from this village, although no one knew why until know."

"Was that woman your mother?"

"No. My mother is in there somewhere, but I don't care enough to meet her. You, dad, our cousins, uncles and aunts... All of you are my family. Not some woman who happened to give birth to me and then abandoned me."

Nora stopped in her tracks and looked at Ren seriously. "I accept you as part of my family. Even if you are half Grimm."

Ren almost laughed. It was like she didn't listen to a word he said, but he knew what it meant. She didn't care. She would accept him no matter what.

He felt a great joy fill his body. Where was all of this happiness coming from?

Oh, that's right.

"Nora..."

"Yes?"

"I love you."

She giggled. "Took you long enough."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. The wait made it all the sweeter." She said and continued walking. Ren did the only thing he knew - he followed her.

* * *

 **Message received on all of JNPR's scrolls a week later:**

As soon as we tried to round up the Grimm outside, all of them became hostile, even the ones in the village. They attacked both people who had drunk their blood and us alike. In the end, we slaughtered them.

The brainwashing techniques proved to be ineffective after that.

I forwarded what little information we managed to get to anyone willing to listen, but I doubt anything will come of it.

I had hope, but this mission was ultimately a failure.

Jaqueline Arc  
Captain of the Third "First Line" Outpost

 **Ren's response:**

Thank you for trying. The mission wasn't a failure. At least not to me.


	18. Chapter 21 - Cat, mouse and bunny

Being out in nature before sunrise was truly one of the greatest joys life had to offer. The smell of the night air, the pleasant chill and the unending silence were some of the most calming things Yang had ever experienced.

She regretted not being able to appreciate it fully since she had gone to bed at three AM last night.

"What are we doing here anyway?" she asked her sister, who had been a little too secretive for her liking.

"We're going to be training today," she said. "All day."

"I think Weiss is asleep," Blake said.

Weiss jumped when she heard her name. "No, I'm not. I was just resting my eyes."

"Right. Anyway, today we're going to be training with a team of our seniors."

"Let me guess, CFVY?" Yang said.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Coco said something about having an annoying assignment."

"How rude," Ruby said. "I even asked nicely."

"I can't say I'm opposed to the idea," Blake said and stretched out, looking vaguely cat-like as she did it. "I feel like I might be a little rusty with everything that happened and we all know that after the festival things are going to get pretty tough."

"Are you going to compete seriously?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah. Why enter if you aren't going to?"

"I never said I wasn't. The fact that you are is surprising to me. I thought you'd be more concerned with the White Fang and all that to be able to concentrate on fighting for other people's entertainment."

Blake took out her weapon and made a few practice swings. "It's going to be for my entertainment as well. And besides, we have no idea what the White Fang or Roman are doing. I've also been thinking that my abilities are a little lacking. Testing my strength against strong opponents is something I feel will help me understand my weaknesses and strengths better."

"Let's start then," a voice they recognized as Coco said. "This is going to be a long day for you guys. Now, let's start with something simple. Velvet versus RWBY, the team, not the girl. Go."

* * *

Three hours in, Blake's enthusiasm was starting to evaporate. She thought that the sunrise would level the playing field a little, but they were still just as pointlessly outclassed as they were when they started. They had burned through countless of Ruby's plans and still weren't able to even touch Velvet. She was too strong, too fast, too agile, too smart and just too ridiculously good at fighting for them to stand a chance.

She met up with Ruby and was told an even more desperate plan. The two of them were going to distract Velvet while Weiss tries to trap her and then Yang uses the momentous amounts of energy she had collected over the course of the "training" to take her out. Blake could already tell it wasn't going to work, but since she couldn't come up with anything better, she played along.

They found Velvet and went for a frontal attack, Ruby going ahead and Blake following her as best she could. Velvet grabbed the scythe that was coming for her and redirected it so that it crashed into a tree and retaliated by hitting Ruby with the palm of her hand, sending her flying back at Blake.

Blake caught Ruby, helped her stand up and continued her attack. Velvet pulled the scythe out of the tree and threw it back to Ruby.

Blake saw her chance. She dodged the scythe that was in her way and sent an aura blade straight for Velvet. Naturally, she leaned out of the way, but that left her slightly imbalanced, which was exactly what Blake needed in order to get to her and stab her.

The blade almost reached its target, but at the last second Velvet regained her balance and stepped to the side. She punched back and Blake deflected it with the sheath, at the same time trying another attack.

It was about as effective. Velvet used Blake's sheath as support in order to vault over the blade and come in way too close. She headbutted one of Blake's clones and Blake barely made it out before Velvet punched her as well.

At that moment Ruby rejoined the fight, swinging wildly. Velvet dodged out of the way, but Blake was there to push her further back. Then out of nowhere one of Weiss' glyphs appeared, blocking Velvet's way and another appeared under her.

Velvet jumped straight up into a tree in which Yang was waiting patiently.

Blake thought that was going to be it, but then something strange happened. Velvet caught Yang's punch and used it to propel herself backwards, into another tree. Unwilling to let their best chance yet get away, Yang followed and was promptly punched in the face.

* * *

Three painful hours later, they took a break.

"Just how," Weiss asked. "How can you possibly be better than the four of us, working together, without even using a semblance or even a weapon?"

"Hard work, I guess," Velvet answered. She didn't look tired at all. "I was a pretty good fighter before coming to Beacon and I've been here for over a year. It adds up."

"Please, it's all about talent," Coco said, looking up from her book. She had gotten them lunch. "The only reason why she's this good is because she was pretty amazing when she came in. Even in the one year we've been a team she's probably had the least overall improvement mainly because there's not a lot she can do to improve. Stop selling yourself short."

"That too," Velvet said. "But that doesn't mean hard work wouldn't be enough for you to catch up."

Yang frowned. "I can see that. I totally can't keep up with you now, but I feel like if I get a little more used to fighting you, I'd start learning pretty fast."

"Yang, she's barely trying," Blake said. "By the way, there's something I want to ask you." She turned to Velvet.

"What?" Velvet asked.

"Why do you let Cardin and his team push you around? You could probably send them to the hospital by sneezing in their general direction."

"Doesn't mean I should. You should know better than to think that responding to violence with violence is an acceptable answer."

Blake reached up to touch the cat ears under her bow, but thought better of it. So Velvet had been able to tell after all.

"Besides," Velvet continued. "It's only first years that do it. Everyone else saw me fight in the tournament last year."

"How did you guys do in that anyway," Ruby asked.

"Velvet won," Coco said. "I didn't even get to fight her." She sounded a little bitter.

"How was it, difficulty-wise for someone with your level of ability," Weiss asked Velvet.

"Easy," Velvet answered. "I only went all out in the last battle and that was because I decided it would make things more interesting for the next year."

"Three seconds wasn't much of a battle," Fox said.

"I only ever needed one," Velvet said. "My opponent was severely underwhelming."

Both teams chewed on their food silently after that. Fighting Velvet in the tournament was going to suck.

"How about this," Ruby said suddenly. "Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi join us and together we try to beat her."

"No," Coco said immediately.

"Come on, I'm completely out of ideas. If we continue like this, it's just going to be useless. I'm tired, Weiss is tired, Blake and Yang could probably go on, but there isn't much point to it since without us they won't be able to get close to her before she knocks them on their asses."

"I'm not going to waste one of my very few plans on defeating her for an exercise like this." Coco declared.

"You know, you really should tell me those plans already," Velvet said. "Not knowing could put me in danger."

"It won't." Coco was adamant. "I need to have something for the tournament and further on."

"Can we get back to the problem at hand?" Weiss asked. "I agree that at our level we've gotten as much out of this training as we possibly could have. Continuing to fight Velvet would be pointless and boring." She turned to Coco. "That being said, I challenge you to a duel."

Coco looked up at Weiss with interest. "Do you think you're going to do any better against me?"

"I think my chance is higher than zero, so it's an improvement."

"I guess we could kill some time like that," Coco said thoughtfully. "But you're not the one I want to fight." She looked at Ruby. "So, how about we split up according to our position in the team's acronym? C versus R, F versus W, V versus B and Y versus Y. Also since we are a senior team, I'll give you a handicap. We won't use our semblances."

All of RWBY seemed relieved that there would be a change in pace, except for Blake, of course. She didn't look very pleased with the results.

"Why do you want to fight me?" Ruby asked.

"You're the most dangerous, I guess," Coco said and picked her bag up. "And you're the leader. It seems fitting that the leaders get things started. So, any objections before we begin?" Nobody, even Blake, said anything. In fact, Blake looked like she wasn't even paying attention to Coco, only looking at Velvet, probably wondering if there could be a way to beat her.

Ruby and Coco got in positions facing each other. Ruby drew Crescent Rose, while Coco just held her bag.

Ruby didn't waste any time attacking, but the moment before she would have hit, her scythe was deflected by the bag. Coco punched her in the gut before Ruby could put some distance between them.

Ruby was forced back by the force of the punch. She quickly backed up before Coco could go for another.

"Well that was underwhelming," Coco said.

Weiss was struggling to hold Yang back.

"I'm not done yet," Ruby said. She had a pained expression, but quickly shook it off. "I wanted to warm up a little first, but I guess you're all about the action, aren't you?" She raised her scythe and fired off a shot in order to boost herself ahead.

She went past Coco, hoping that the wind around her would force her back, but no such thing happened. Ruby continued with her plan and circled around, building up speed until she could use her semblance and rifle as enough of a boost so that Coco wouldn't be able to react before having a scythe to her neck.

The plan was sound, but it appeared Coco had also thought of it. She knew how hard it would be for Ruby to make even the slightest correction in the direction she was running, so taking a step sideways, while leaving a foot to trip Ruby was enough to send her crashing headfirst into a tree.

"Well, that was that, I guess," Coco said while Ruby tried to gather her thoughts in spite of nearly cracking her skull open. "You did fine for your first attempt. That attack was a little obvious, but if it had hit I would have been in trouble. Just make sure you can actually hit your target before you do that and you'll be golden."

Ruby made sure to remember every word she said.

"Okay, next. Fox versus Weiss."

Weiss stepped up and took her position across from Fox.

"Whenever you're ready," he said.

"I'm ready," Weiss said and created a transportation glyph.

"She's really going all out, isn't she?" Yang commented while watching.

"I'm guessing she's a little mad." Ruby said. Her partner did not look pleased after being refused by Coco.

"Still, I remember a time when she would only make up to five glyphs at a time. Look at her now." The battlefield was littered with the products of Weiss' semblance, all set up for the final blow which came shortly after.

Weiss' strategy had been focused on abusing Fox's disability. The first stage of her plan was setting up all the glyphs she would need. The second was to use the sounds they made to lure Fox to where she wanted him and the final part was for him to dodge a trap and end up face to face with her, her blade touching his chest.

"If this was a real fight, you'd be dead," she whispered into his ear.

"Did you suppress your aura as I approached? Held your breath? Didn't move a muscle as I was right in front of you? I'm impressed. You played to my weaknesses very well." Fox whispered back.

"I never moved anything more than my fingers. I also chose my position very carefully in order to stay upwind." Weiss explained.

Coco clapped sarcastically. "Well done, miss Schnee, you have successfully beaten a blind man."

"Heh, now I get why you didn't accept her challenge. Don't want to lose to the newbies?" Fox didn't seem to care about losing as he sat down to watch the next fight.

"As if. She won only because your weakness is pretty obvious. I don't have one, so I have nothing to worry about. Anyway, next."

Blake Belladona and Velvet Scarlatina faced off.

The first thing Blake did was to retreat into a spot in the forest where the trees were closer together. Then she, with the help of her clones started intertwining her ribbons between the trees until they formed something like a net around her. When done, it was impossible to move without having to dodge multiple ribbons at the same time. Something like this was sure to slow Velvet down, even if it had cost her her ribbons. She wasn't going to be nearly as strong at range, but at least now she had a chance.

Blake moved through effortlessly, often using her ribbons to step on or swing off of. Velvet seemed impressed, although she just grabbed the closest ribbon with both hands, as if to tear it.

"Don't do it," Coco yelled at her. "Make it at least a little fun."

Velvet shrugged and let go. Instead, she watched the way Blake moved.

Blake used her guns, but Velvet ducked behind a tree. When Blake got close, Velvet nearly tangled herself into them, but managed to get out, while keeping Blake away from herself.

"I think that was it," Coco said. "Care to tell me why, Ruby?"

"From what I can see, Velvet is starting to adapt, meaning that if Blake couldn't beat her in the first few seconds, she certainly won't be able to now."

A little after that, Velvet was moving through the net faster than Blake. She caught up to her and grabbed her by the back of the neck before she managed to use a clone.

"That was good," Coco said. "I think you actually forced her to use her head for once. Of course she wouldn't have in a real fight, but still, you did pretty well. As I'm sure all of you have already noticed, Velvet is an impossible opponent. She is as unbeatable to the rest of her team as she is to you guys. I think getting her to actually put in an effort is an accomplishment in and of itself. Good job."

Blake was drinking in the praise.

"So, my turn, huh?" Yang said, rolling her shoulders and cracking her knuckles.

Yatsuhashi rose to his feet and the two of them stared at each other.

"Let's do this," Yang said and attacked. Yatsu blocked with the flat of his sword and then went in for a slash. Yang had no choice but to fall back. She didn't want to meet that attack head on until she was sure she could take it.

As such, she lured him next to a tree and dodged at the last second. The blade sailed past her and went almost halfway through the tree. Not too bad.

Yang quickly made up her mind and made the fight into a contest of strength and endurance. She met Yatsu's blade head on, pushing it to the side and threw a punch with her other fist. He got the base of his sword up just in time to block it.

They were actually pretty evenly matched, Yang thought. Maybe if he was using whatever his semblance was it would have been different, but for now she could hold her own against him.

They continued fighting for about thirty minutes before Coco called it off.

"Watching this is like reading about entropy," she said. "Boring and inevitable. Let's call it Yang's win even if it would have taken a few more hours."

"Why were you reading about entropy?" Ruby asked.

"Because I like reading," she answered. "And people keep writing about it."

Everyone could see Blake's ears slightly pointing towards Coco under her bow. She seemed vaguely interested, but not enough to comment on it.

"So what now?" Yang asked. "I'm sure we're all pretty tired and it's only a little after noon. Are we going to keep going or what?"

"We could," Velvet said. "If you guys want to."

Weiss, Blake and Yang looked at Ruby.

"What? If you want to keep going, then do so. Don't ask me for every little thing."

"You're the one that arranged all of this," Weiss reminded her.

"So? I'm okay with leaving things off here. We're somewhat used to fighting them and actually stand a chance if we end up fighting them in the tournament now. We could keep going if you guys want to."

"Not really," Weiss said.

"Me neither," Blake said.

They all looked at Yang.

"Nope, I'm good with leaving it here. I now have a good idea of what I need to do in order to be able to beat any of you guys."

"What's that?" Velvet asked.

"Train harder and get stronger."

Ruby, Weiss and Blake laughed. "For a second I thought you had an actual plan," Weiss said.

"Hey, it's a plan. A little long term but do you have anything better?"

"Mine involves using amounts of dust that might be illegal to import," Weiss said. "Although I guess I could also use the drug. With it I might actually be able to match her as far as sheer power goes."

"I doubt it," Blake said. "It might have given us ridiculous amounts of aura, but I doubt just that is going to be enough to take her down in the time limit."

"Also using stuff like that in an official tournament is illegal," Ruby reminded them. "Now let's go, we have a meeting with JNPR after dinner."

"Why?" Yang asked.

"Tournament reasons."

* * *

After dinner RWBY piled into team JNPR's dorm.

"Hi," Jaune said. "What is this all about?"

"Well, I though with the tournament and all, you guys would like for us to level the playing field between us. You know all of our semblances, but we don't know Jaune's, Nora's or Ren's."

"About that," Jaune began but Pyrrha raised her hand to cut him off.

"Do you really think Jaune won't need that edge?" She said.

"Good point, but Ren and Nora are already a little overpowered. I think the fights would be a lot more fun if they weren't going to be completely lopsided."

"It wouldn't make a difference," Nora said. "But there's no reason not to." She held her hand up and extended two fingers. A few bright sparks jumped between them, illuminating the room in a light far more intense than the lights overhead.

"Cool," Yang said.

"Well I don't like it. It makes my hair all fuzzy when I use it too much outside of my body."

"She's been like this since she was a little girl." Ren explained. "With that kind of semblance she could create artificial thunderstorms if she wanted to, but because it makes her hair stand on end she only uses it to boost her muscles."

"Sounds painful," Blake said.

"Not really. My body adapted to it." Nora said and flexed her bicep. It certainly looked like it adapted.

"What about you, Ren?" Ruby asked.

"It's not something I can show you," he said. "I can see the intricacies in a person's aura. How much of it they have, how strong it is, its color and other, more complex, things."

"Like what?" Weiss asked.

"I am often able to guess a person's semblance from the way their aura looks. Yours, Weiss, has numerous pieces shaped like glyphs throughout. Most notably there is one over the left side of your face, the center lining up with your eye. The biggest one is on your back."

Weiss touched her face, her fingers sliding over her eyelid. "I don't feel anything."

"It follows the curvature of your face. Because of your white skin and white aura, it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that it looks like a scar, or a tattoo."

"What about me," Yang said eagerly.

"Nothing visible right now," Ren said. "But as you activate more and more of your semblance your real power becomes more and more visible. I don't think I'm capable of winning against you."

He looked around. His eyes stopped on Blake. "Yours is very strange. Even when you're resting you have butterflies over parts of your body. I have no idea what it means though."

Blake touched her face and then shoulders frantically.

"You won't be able to feel them. There isn't enough aura for them to manifest physically. They're more like decoration. You're also getting more of them. You only had three when I first met you, but now you have four."

"Sounds pretty," Yang said.

"It is," Ren said. For some reason Nora made a low growling sound.

Ren looked a little confused.

"Hey Ren," Jaune said quietly. Everyone turned to look at him. He had a very anxious expression. "What about me?"

"Very strong aura, but not a lot of control over it. It has started following the curvature of your armor even when you're not wearing it. Other than that, I'm not really sure."

Jaune sighed. "When did all of you get your semblances anyway?"

"Twelve or thirteen. When I started going through puberty. I thought I was going crazy." Ren replied first.

"Basically the same, but my hair started catching fire," Yang said. "Ruby was always faster than kids her age, but I'd say her semblance started really forming at around the same time mine did, so she was about two years younger."

Jaune looked at the rest.

"Nine," Weiss said. "Wasn't usable until I was eleven though." She looked at Blake.

"Fifteen or sixteen. I'm not really sure. Might have been earlier and I never noticed it."

"How do you not notice that?" Yang asked.

"It only happens if I'm in danger and I'm usually too preoccupied with not dying to notice."

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"Eleven. Puberty seems to be the most likely age."

"Nora?"

"Dunno. People say I was born with it."

Everyone turned to look at her.

"What? I don't know if it's true, but that's what my family say."

"Ren?" Jaune asked.

"I already went."

Jaune sighed. Ruby was amused to find his team played the same tricks on him. "Not that, is what she's saying true?"

"I can't confirm or deny it, since I too am operating on rumors, but she did zap me a lot when we were kids."

"Wow," Jaune said. "And in the meantime I still don't have one."

Pyrrha gently put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure you're almost there."

"It's not like you really need one," Weiss said. "You held your own back in the battle. Keep working on your skills and if you get a semblance along the way it'll be a nice bonus." Everyone turned to look at her.

"Strange to hear you say that," Pyrrha said.

"'Tis but the truth. Also I was told to do my best to keep Jaune in a state of improvement. Right now he needs motivation and that's what I'm doing."

Pyrrha and Weiss continued glaring at each other until Ruby cleared her throat loudly.

"I think we're done. You guys want to train tomorrow?"

"I thought we'd do one with the entire team, but eight people might be a little confusing," Jaune said. "Besides, I heard you guys trained with the seniors today. Pretty sure we aren't going to be able to compare to that."

Ruby was about to protest that they didn't need to, but Weiss pulled on her sleeve. "I actually have something I'd like to do tomorrow," Weiss said.

"Can't it wait?"

"No. I thought we'd get at least a day before the festival to prepare."

Ruby paused. She definitely didn't want to take on JNPR without Weiss.

"I'd like to go and get a new weapon tomorrow." Blake said out of nowhere.

"What's wrong with your current one?" Yang asked.

"It's heavy and slow and I've forgotten the last time when the gun actually damaged an enemy. Since I learned aura blades it has felt more and more like a pointless attachment. Our mission with Oobleck only served to solidify that belief. With today's battle I'm certain that it's the main thing holding me back."

Ruby thought about it. Maybe they could do with a bit of a break.

"What are you going to be doing anyway?" She asked Weiss.

"I want to buy a car. I think with all the coming and going from Vale to here we'll be doing with the tournament and festival it would come in very handy."

Not having to go everywhere on foot or wait for a Bullhead did sound tempting.

"Okay then, I declare tomorrow an official RWBY shopping trip. I'll go with Blake because I'm worried about what you might get if I don't, and Yang will go with Weiss to make sure she doesn't get something ridiculous."

"I don't..." Weiss started.

"No complaints," Ruby said and walked out. "Night guys."

"Night," she heard Jaune reply. Her team followed her out.

* * *

Yang could tell that her team was tired. They didn't talk much during dinner and then went to bed immediately after returning to their room. It was pretty normal for her to be the last one awake, but for some reason tonight she wished she could just go ahead and fall asleep.

Unfortunately, she wasn't even close to it. She stared up into the ceiling, wondering what it was going to be like going out with Weiss tomorrow. It should be fun.

She decided that falling asleep wasn't going to happen any time soon. She got up and got herself a glass of water. Then, as she passed by the beds she heard a small sound. Curious, she followed it to Weiss and Blake's bunks. She saw a small earphone in Weiss' ear.

Yang reached out to take it and see what kind of music Weiss would listen to in bed, but just as her hand passed over the heiress' face one of her eyes opened.

"Go to sleep," Weiss said and pulled the earphones out. After a bit of fumbling under the covers the music disappeared.

"You didn't have to do that," Yang whispered.

"If I wanted to keep listening I would have. It's late and I fell asleep like this."

"Then why don't I normally see you listening to music? I didn't even see you put those on when you were going to bed."

"Because you do not need to be privy to every single thing I do."

"Fine," Yang said. Maybe she was wrong after all, but Weiss was exactly the type of person to stop listening to music because she was afraid someone might hear it.

"Good night," Weiss said and turned her back to Yang.

"Night."

Yang returned to her own bunk and tried to fall asleep. She was moderately successful.

* * *

Ruby started things off by taking Blake to her favorite weapons shop in Vale.

"Ruby, I wanted something simple and light. I don't see anything like that here." Blake said after looking around. "In fact, this place has mostly guns and parts to make melee weapons that transform into guns. I don't want a gun."

Ruby frowned. "We're definitely in the wrong place then. I know a more traditional shop over in the outskirts, but would you mind if I got some stuff first?"

"Not really." Blake said.

Ruby quickly went up to the counter and spent about five minutes talking to the clerk.

"That was quick," Blake said when she returned.

"Yeah, they don't usually have all the stuff I need so it's easier to order it and have it delivered to Beacon when they get it. I did buy this." She pulled out a very small revolver with a white handle. It fit in the palm of her hand.

"It's pretty," Blake said. There was a flowery pattern on one side of the handle.

"I got it as a gift for Weiss. After what I did to her I feel like I should apologize. I doubt she'll use it, but it's the only thing I could think of getting her. Shall we go?" They stepped out into the street.

"So is this why we came all the way out here?"

"That and also because you wanted a weapon and this is the most famous shop in all of Vale. Also, since we were already here, I thought it would be a waste not to do this week's order."

"You order something every week?"

"Did you think your ammo replenishes by itself?"

"Of course not, but I thought Beacon ordered it."

"They could, but students are encouraged to do it themselves. Their service costs twenty percent of the order total and we can still use the same deal they have with weapons manufacturers. There are still plenty of people lazy enough to do it, but I thought we could find better uses for our budget."

Blake never knew they even had a budget. "So what, have you been hoarding weapons with our entire budget or something?"

Ruby looked a little offended. "Of course not. I've been saving it. Did you think you were going to pay for whatever weapon you choose? I mean, sure I sometimes use it for parts I can't afford at the moment but I put the money back when I get it."

Blake wondered why she even doubted someone as moral as Ruby. "You really should indulge sometimes if you're going to buy me a weapon with it."

Ruby considered it. "That's not really a good idea. My weapon-related expenses are more than the three of you combined. Even more so if you switch to a melee-only weapon."

"It's a weaponry budget, isn't it? What are we going to use it on? I don't really need anything. Weiss gets any consumable ammunition she needs for free and I doubt Yang uses a lot."

"You'd be surprised. I sometimes have trouble fitting enough ammo for myself in her locker." Blake wondered what exactly was filling up Ruby's locker. She had a general idea, but the specifics seemed interesting. She could imagine there being some combination of candy, tools, explosives and bubblegum. She was actually getting more and more curious the more she thought about it.

"You can put stuff in my locker as well," Blake said. Then she realized that more than twenty minutes had passed since that particular conversation ended.

Ruby looked at Blake curiously. "Thanks," she said.

"Don't mention it. Really, don't. The last thing I need is Yang stuffing dresses or something in there."

Ruby chuckled. Then she stopped walking. "We're here," she said. She pointed at a small shop on a street corner. She opened the door and let Blake come in first.

The shop was certainly curious. It held all sorts of traditional weapons, from swords and spears to things like lances, bardiches, flails and lots of things Blake had never even heard of before.

Ruby went up to the shopkeeper and exchanged a few words with him before Blake was close enough to hear them.

"Weapon," the old man said and extended his hand. Blake gave Gambol Shroud to him with a little hesitation. It had served her well throughout the years.

The man took it out and frowned when he forced it to transform. He then examined the blade and looked back to Blake. "I find this type of weapon offensive. If you want a gun use a gun. If you want a blade use a blade. It's when you try meshing the two together that the problems start."

"Maybe for you," Ruby muttered.

"I heard that."

"You were supposed to. Anyway, my friend is here because she wants to do exactly what you're saying. Give her something that'll feel similar to what she has, has good integration with aura and will be less wasteful according to you."

He muttered something about kids these days having no respect and went to the back.

"This is where my uncle got his first scythe," Ruby explained. "This guy thinks our modern weapons are unreliable and he has a point, but there comes a time when you have to sacrifice reliability for efficiency."

"Won't I be gaining both with this change?" Blake asked.

"Maybe. What I said was a general statement. Exceptions are hardly unexpected." She smiled. "Much like how you getting a new weapon was unexpected."

"Smooth segue. Why would it be unexpected?"

"Because hunters in training rarely change their weaponry and gear and even if they do it happens somewhere around graduation."

What a strange thing to know off the top of your head. "Really? Why do you think that is?"

"Because that's when they become strong enough for their weapon to be the main bottleneck of their fighting ability. You're quite a bit ahead in that regard."

"Or maybe I just have a bad weapon?"

"Not really. It's pretty average if anything. The ribbons are a nice touch, if a bit gimmicky."

"That's not a bad thing, although I guess that's not going to work anymore."

"It could."

Blake looked around until the shopkeeper returned. He held out a long, thin, curved sword in a sheath for her. She took it and unsheathed it.

The sword reminded her of Adam's Wilt for some reason, even if it was completely different. It looked very thin, very sharp and very fragile. There was a complicated pattern on both of its sides. She swung it slowly through the air and it moved with barely any resistance at all, making a low whistling sound.

"I think I'd just end up breaking something like this," she said. "I need something a little more solid if I want to be able to fight without worrying about breaking my weapon."

"Even if you use no aura with it, it won't snap when meeting another sword head on. For any other situations, the silver on the sides of the blade is there for it to better conduct aura and strengthen it. Even if you end up damaging it, it will curve instead of breaking, meaning it won't be completely useless. Finally, it is a very cheap to make blade. It is easily replaced which means that getting used to it won't cost you nearly as much as getting used to one of those toys you'd get at any other shop."

Blake didn't know what to think. It was certainly a very nice sword and she could tell that if she put in the time to learn to use it properly it would be very powerful, but she didn't know if she had that kind of time to spare. The tournament was getting closer by the second and learning a whole new fighting style seemed out of the question.

"How about something closer to what I used up until now? Without the gun and maybe something that will work well for dual wielding."

"Dual wielding? What kind of idiot are you? Do you not realize how inefficient that is?"

"That's enough," Ruby tried to interfere. "People get used to very specific styles of fighting. Especially hunters."

"That doesn't excuse the fact that it's completely ludicrous. It more than halves the average strength you put behind your attacks. Not to mention it leaves you basically defenseless. Anything beyond a parry dagger or a short sword for the same purpose is pure idiocy."

"Second warning," Ruby said. "You only get three."

"It's fine," Blake said. "He made his point. I don't even actively dual wield, so it was wrong of me to request it as a feature. Still, it would be nice to have something to parry with my off-hand and occasionally attack if the situation calls for it."

"The sheath can be made with the same markings. It would be even stronger than the blade and it might come in handy to have a blunt instrument once in a while."

Ruby looked vaguely impressed. "That's actually pretty ingenious. Although you would look vaguely like Roman with a blunt weapon."

That was pretty interesting. "Well, all things aside, Roman looks pretty good. For a criminal who would sacrifice his comrades to buy himself time." Blake picked up the sheath and swung it. It had a solid feel to it and she was pretty sure it could break bones.

"We're really getting somewhere, aren't we?" Ruby said excitedly.

"Yeah." She turned to the shopkeeper. "So, I know it's stupid, but I've actually grown attached to the ribbons that go with my previous weapon. Any ideas about that?"

Ruby put her hand up before the shopkeeper could say anything.

"What?" he asked.

"Wires."

"I know. Quit stealing my show." He gave a crooked smile. "Wires are the way to go. A recovery and holding system is also in order. You'll need to wear special gloves and use separate blades for it. Two sets, embedding and tying depending on the situation. You'll also need to learn to throw knives."

That sounded like a lot of work. "I already know at least the basics of throwing knives and I'm used to having something strapped to my forearms. Tell me about the knives I'd need."

"Well the tying ones would be something like this." He produced a knife thinner than Blake's index finger in all dimensions except length, where it was slightly longer. It which had a bunch of slots cut into it, probably so that it would catch a wire that went around something. "You need to spin that one on the wire a little before throwing it. As for the embedding ones would look like this," He produced an even smaller knife with a serrated edge that looked like it would be extremely painful coming out of flesh. "Just a straight throw."

He handed both of them to Blake and she was surprised by how heavy they were.

"You might need something bigger for long distances, but this should be enough for up to a hundred meters, depending on your strength."

Blake tossed both blades up and down. They certainly felt like they would fly well. "I'll put the whole thing together by the end of the week," he said. "Although this will cost you quite a bit. Making a reliable system with that many moving parts is quite the accomplishment if I do say so myself."

"That's fine," Ruby said. "Even if I know you're going to overcharge us."

"You're free to find someone else to do the hydraulics you always seem to need, but you know full well the price is worth it."

"I'm not saying I can, I'm saying you charge too much even if and especially because you don't have any real competition."

"Even if that is true, what are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing." Ruby turned back to Blake. "So, we know you like the idea of the wires, but what about the sword?"

"I don't know. I still think I'd like something a little sturdier."

"Tell you what, how about we spar? Give you a feel for it."

"Where are we going to...?"

"Back room. Try not to break everything." The shopkeeper cut her off and raised the curtain to the back. Ruby and Blake entered a spacious room, the walls of which were lined with all sorts of weapons, including, much to Blake's surprise, a lot of firearms.

"He's a hypocrite," Ruby said. "No big surprise there. If a guy comes in to rob your store you'd rather have a shotgun than a broadsword. Unless it's someone with an unusually strong aura, I guess. Then again, the only thing he's really against is mixing the two types of weapons." She unfolded her scythe.

Blake raised the sword and sheath. She let her aura flow freely through both and they turned a dull black color.

"You might want to hold the sheath a little lower," Ruby said. "Not much point in holding both up like that. It's only going to get in the way."

She had a point. Blake let the sheath hang low and attacked with the sword. Ruby moved out of the way quickly and Blake pursued her. It was a little like a game of cat and mouse.

The blade was very nice. It was extremely light and it didn't show any signs of wear even when repeatedly clashing against Ruby's much heavier scythe. Blake experimentally sent out a blade of aura and found that she could launch them much faster and they would fly with more speed as well, even if they were a little lighter. Ruby blocked it and was forced back just a little, but enough for Blake to continue pushing her back.

Of course such a strategy didn't work on Ruby, since she could make enough distance to regain her composure. Blake tried to continue at the same pace and force her into a corner again, but Ruby used the recoil from striking her to whirl around and attack Blake's left. Blake used the sheath to block and then tried to strike Ruby with it.

The hit barely connected, but it was enough to throw Ruby off balance, allowing Blake to switch her main hand and attack with the sword.

"That..." Ruby had to take a breath. "Was awesome." She let go of the blade she had caught in her hand.

"I agree," Blake said. "Meeting the scythe head on might have been a little too much, though. This sword doesn't have nearly as much weight, so I had to use a lot of force to not get pushed back."

"I don't think you're supposed to use it like that." Ruby said. "You might want to start sidestepping and dodging more. Also I feel like you could have been a little more aggressive. I saw a lot of openings I would have been able to exploit if I had a little more room to work with. If not for our current cramped battlefield, things might have gone a lot differently." She folded her scythe back up. "I must say I'm impressed, though. You adapted incredibly quickly."

"I used to partner with someone who used a similar weapon," Blake said. "Before Beacon."

"Oh," Ruby said. She probably understood what that meant. "Was he or she good with it?"

"Very. Probably not as good as I'm going to become when I get used to it and get the wires."

Ruby didn't argue. She walked up to the shopkeeper and told him they'd take the sword.

"Do you want the sheath and blade painted black?" he asked Blake.

"Sure," Blake said. They would be less noticeable at night. "How long would I have to wait?"

"A day or so. You don't want it rubbing off, right?"

"He's trying to rip you off. He expects you to break at least a couple of these swords and he's driving the price up with expensive gimmicks." Ruby said. "It's fine though. We should order at least a couple anyway just in case."

The shopkeeper put his tongue out as they left.

* * *

"You're suspiciously okay with babysitting me," Weiss said to Yang as they walked down the sunny roads of Vale at noon. Really, who would have thought there was a Grimm attack not even a month ago.

"It's not every day that I get the chance to test drive cars that cost more than I'm likely to make my entire life." Yang answered. She was clearly looking forward to it a little too much.

"That's not what we're going to be doing," Weiss said. "I actually know what I want to buy, so we won't be test driving at all."

"We'll see about that. The way I see it you're either going to want to buy something ridiculously expensive, which Ruby told me to stop you from doing, or a small cheap car for coming and going which is a pretty bad investment if you happen to have the money for anything better. I'm going to show you the sweet spot between the two."

Weiss groaned. She was going to make something as simple as buying a car into a big deal, wasn't she?

"Yang, I've already chosen what I want and you won't be able to make me change my mind."

"We'll see about that," Yang said. She was acting a little too cocky. "What do you want to buy anyway?"

"A limousine. It offers plenty of comfort and lots of room in case we need to offer a ride to other teams. There are also some very fast ones."

Yang was stunned, with her mouth hanging slightly open. "Ruby was right," she muttered. "You would have bought something ridiculous if I didn't come with you."

"It isn't ridiculous and you being here isn't going to change anything."

"Yes it will because I can't let you do something that stupid."

"I can easily afford it."

"The fact that you can afford something doesn't mean you should waste money."

"The fact that money is spent on comfort doesn't make it a waste. You should know that better than most people."

Yang clearly didn't have an argument, but she didn't look ready to give up. "Just think about this. We're in our first year. How do you think we'd look if we always went to town in a limo?"

"Like we can afford it, which I can and I'm willing to share. I know you've used my shampoo before and this isn't really all that different."

"It's different because this isn't shampoo, it's a car and more importantly, a limousine is a status symbol. We aren't rock stars, royalty or whatever. We're Huntresses, humble soldiers that go around killing monsters and helping people and going around like that might have negative effects on the whole organization."

Weiss clucked her tongue impatiently. "I'm not buying this as a huntress or for hunters. I'm buying it as Weiss Schnee, spoiled rich girl, for me and my friends. That's it. No one's going to care. We aren't going to go to missions in it or anything like that. It will be simply there for convenience." She took a breath. Yang didn't look convinced. "Tell you what, how about we go to the showroom and have a look and decide then."

"I will not be bribed."

"Then you have nothing to worry about." Weiss smiled.

"Somehow that phrase makes me think the opposite whenever I hear it."

"It'll be fine," Weiss said and dragged Yang by the hand. "I just want to convince you of how wrong you are."

They went to the dealership and there was already a salesman waiting for them.

"Miss Schnee, Miss Xiao Long, this way please."

Yang gave Weiss a questioning look.

"I called ahead."

They were led outside and in front of a long white limousine. "This is the model you ordered, I hope," the salesman said.

"That's the one," Weiss confirmed. She went to the back door and opened it for Yang.

"I know what you're doing," Yang said. "It won't work. There's no way I'm going to fall for it."

Weiss smiled and continued holding the door, inviting her in. After Yang broke, she followed her in.

"See what I'm talking about?" she said, gesturing at the wide exterior. "This thing is the absolute best to travel in."

"I'm legitimately in love with these seats," Yang muttered. She had her eyes closed and her face looked like sheer bliss. That was the exact moment Weiss knew she'd won.

* * *

"Hey Blake, have you ever done an aura duel?" Ruby asked her when they returned to their room. The rest of their team was nowhere to be found and she was getting a little bored. "I hear there's going to be a mini-tournament of them in the preliminaries."

"I haven't. What is it?" Blake responded.

"It's really cool. Basically, two people stand facing each other and put their palms against the other's. Then they try to get their aura to touch the opponent's left hand with their right, while defending their own left."

"Sounds fairly simple."

"It really isn't. Here, let me show you."

Ruby stood right in front of Blake and stretched her arms out. Blake did the same and touched their palms together.

"You ready?" Ruby asked. "One, two, three, go."

Blake thought that her best strategy would be to focus on defense and then attack once Ruby switched to attacking, so she pooled all of the aura she could in her left hand.

"Here's the thing," Ruby said. "This isn't just about who can push out the most aura at a certain time," she said. "It's also about strategy, adaptation, speed, dexterity, balance, planning and stamina. You see, right now I'm conserving my strength while you aren't. That means that I might soon have more overall aura than you, which would give me the advantage. You could try attacking, but that would divert your attention from defending. I could also do this."

Blake felt Ruby's aura try to slip into her right hand. She immediately sent a burst of her own to chase her out, which caused Ruby to retreat quickly, but Blake felt an attack against her left hand. She reinforced her defense, but left a little to protect her other hand.

"A well placed attack to the right hand is also a good strategy, since it would make you unable to attack for a few seconds, giving me the opportunity to go all out on your defense." Ruby explained. "Of course you may choose to not defend it in favor of defending yourself, which would give me the ability to send more aura into your attacking hand, thus rendering attacking to be nearly impossible for you."

Blake tried to match her attack to Ruby's defense and her defense to her attack. Ruby's face visibly stiffened as the strain of having to keep up with Blake's larger aura reserves was starting to show itself.

"Now, try an attack," Ruby said. "In the past, aura duels were done with a person's right hand on their opponent's forehead, so attacking was extremely risky, lest they kill each other. The same principle applies now. If you attack too suddenly, you would be left vulnerable. A sudden all-out attack almost always assures a double elimination, unless, of course, your maximum aura output is double your opponent's or more."

Blake focused and sent a moderately powerful attack Ruby's way. At the same time, her own defense weakened, so Ruby went all out trying to breach it. Blake quickly defended herself and they were back to adjusting to each other.

"This is fun," Blake said. She felt like she could become really good at it, given time.

"It would be for you," Ruby said. "It's a little too much for me." She pulled her hands away.

"Why did you do that? It was almost over."

"Because I don't want to lose to you for the second time today in things you're a natural at. Next thing we do will be a race."

Blake raised her hand to cover her smile. Seeing Ruby pouting like that was, well, cute.

* * *

About an hour before dinnertime, Weiss and Yang made it back.

Well, technically, they ran out of excuses to delay coming back.

"This is going to suck so much," Yang said when they were in front of the dorm room door.

Weiss didn't reply and pushed the door open.

"What took you so long?" Blake asked them. "You've been out buying a car all day."

"Rides and stuff," Yang said. "We also caught a movie since we were in town anyway."

"Did you see the festival preparations?" Ruby asked.

"Here and there," Weiss said. "The roads where the festival will be are closed, so we didn't see the main thing."

"What car did you guys buy anyway?" Blake asked innocently.

Yang shuffled uncomfortably. "A limousine."

Ruby and Blake exchanged a look. "Wasn't the whole reason why you went with her so that you could stop her from buying something stupid?"

"Well, yeah, but she made some good points and, well, it's really damn nice."

"And it fits us and JNPR, so we'll be able to do bonding stuff," Weiss piped in.

"We could have done that in a minivan," Ruby said.

"A minivan doesn't have six hundred horsepower," Weiss said. "Or leather seats softer than our beds, a sound system, a 3D movie system..."

"I get it," Ruby cut her off. "That doesn't make it a reasonable purchase."

"I think it does. So does Yang. Anyway, we should get dinner."

"Don't "anyway" me, we're not done discussing this," Ruby said and stood in front of the door, as if she was going to try to stop her from leaving.

"What is there to discuss? It's already done. Talking about it is pointless. Besides, I'd like to avoid an argument the very night before the festival when we're supposed to get closer to each other and forgive our teammates for their past mistakes." Weiss winked at Yang from behind Ruby's back.

The guilt trip card was never going to not work on Ruby.


	19. Chapter 22 - Festivities

Jaune went into the store in order to get drinks for himself and his team. Since everything at the festival was going to be extremely overpriced, it was a good idea to cut down on their expenses even if just a little.

As he was passing through the apparel section, he saw someone very familiar trying out hats.

It was a short girl with pure white hair, only it was the first time he saw her with her hair down.

"Weiss?" Jaune called out to her.

The girl turned around and now he was sure it was her. How did she get here so fast? And why wasn't she with her team?

"I'm not Weiss," she said.

"Oh come on. What are you doing in a place like this? I really like what you did with your hair."

"Don't talk to me as if you know me."

Jaune was confused for a moment, but then he figured out what he should do.

"I got it. You're trying to hide for some reason. That's why your hair is different. Okay Weiss, I'm joining you on your mission."

"Like I said, I'm not Weiss."

"Okay, fine, I get it. What's your name?"

"Why would I tell my name to some stranger who suddenly started talking to me?"

"Right, forgot about that. Hi, I'm Jaune."

"Wintry, now go away."

"Do you happen to have a last name, Miss Wintry?"

"Listen, I'm not Weiss. Look at my eyebrows. They're completely different."

Jaune looked carefully and found that she was right. Her eyebrows were way thinner than Weiss'.

"I don't even have a scar, you know," she muttered. "How could you possibly mistake me for her?"

She sounded sad. Jaune put his head down in shame and apologized. The poor girl just wanted to do some shopping and out of nowhere he butted in. "I'm very sorry," he said. "Is there anything I can do to make up for my mistake?"

Wintry looked around, as if lost in thought. "I'll get back to you on that," she said while looking out the window at something. "Now I'm afraid I really have to go." She took a hat, paid for it in record time and ran out of the store.

Jaune picked up a few bottles, paid for them and re-joined his team.

* * *

 **Earlier that day.**

Ruby wasn't any less angry with Weiss.

Seriously, a limousine? What were people going to think if they saw her coming out of one? What if her class from Signal saw her?

She should have gone with Weiss. Yang could have probably done okay getting Blake a weapon.

There was a morning assembly, which basically told the students not to act like idiots at the festival and that they were also there to protect people, should something happen.

"Try to limit your drinking to being able to use your weapons," Professor Goodwitch finished her speech.

"Why do I get the feeling she thinks we're going to overdo it anyway?" Yang said once they were outside. "That entire thing made me feel guilty as hell and I haven't tasted alcohol in weeks."

"Same," Ruby said. "And I haven't had any at all."

"I can't say I blame her," Weiss said. "We're at the age when getting drunk and waking up somewhere without any idea how we got there should be the norm."

"I thought we're supposed to be off duty," Blake said. "Why do they even care what we do?"

"Because hunters are too dangerous to be allowed to go on drunken rampages." Ruby said. "Can you imagine the casualties if there aren't any other hunters around to stop them? In the past we were forbidden to drink or use any other psychoactive substances, even in our free time."

"Where did you hear that? I don't remember it from any of our lectures." Yang looked at Ruby suspiciously.

"I've been doing some extracurricular reading," Ruby admitted. "Why is that surprising?"

"It isn't now that you explained it," Yang said. "Anyway, we should go get dressed and ready. There's only five hours until the festival starts."

"Who could possibly need five hours to get ready?" Blake asked.

"Yang," Ruby replied. "Anyway, do whatever you want until it's time to go. Assemble at the dorm at seventeen hundred."

* * *

Weiss was ready. She was wearing a new coat and jewelry, as well as higher heels. She was sure she looked stunning. And, most importantly, she was taller than Ruby.

Ruby came into the room, wearing what Weiss recently learned was called a yukata, a summer robe meant to be worn outside. Apparently, they were some sort of traditional clothing in Mistral that had gotten popular in Vale recently.

She wondered what Blake and Yang were going to wear. She knew for a fact Blake didn't have many clothes, and none of the ones she did have were very appropriate for a festival, so maybe Yang was going to share hers.

"Let's go out and see if we can gather a group to go into town with," Ruby said, taking Weiss out of her thoughts.

"Are we taking the car?"

"We might as well," Ruby conceded. She was still mad.

They went out and knocked on JNPR's door.

"Hey," Jaune opened the door. "We're going out soon, you guys want to go together?"

"Yeah, we were just about to offer you a ride," Weiss said.

"Sounds great," Jaune said.

"Meet us at the parking lot in ten," Weiss told him. "Do you think CFVY need one?" She turned to Ruby.

"I doubt it," Ruby said. "But we could ask. I also owe CRDL for coming to our rescue in the battle, but I'm not sure if we want them in the car."

"Let's not," Weiss agreed.

"SSSN?"

"Already there. Apparently their police buddies roped them into helping. Neptune's been complaining all week from what I heard."

"Excuse me," they heard a voice from behind them. Weiss turned around and saw that it was the girl Ruby talked to a while back. The one from Haven.

"What is it?" Weiss asked since Ruby was too busy staring at the girl.

"Well, since you're offering a ride into town, I was wondering if it wouldn't be too much to ask for us to partake in it. It's a lot less of a hassle than walking or having to take a bullhead."

Weiss had no reason to refuse, so she turned to Ruby.

Ruby was still glaring at the girl. A few seconds later she realized Weiss was waiting for her to make a decision. "Sure," she said.

"Thanks," the girl said and walked off. "Meet you at the parking lot."

Weiss turned to Ruby. "What was all of that about?"

Ruby shook her head. "I just remembered I have a lot of things to talk to her about," she said. "Let's go."

They gathered the rest of the team and Weiss couldn't conceal her grin upon seeing that Blake was wearing a pair of jeans and a jacket that belonged to Yang. She loved being right.

"Funny thing," Yang said. "It took Blake longer to get ready than it took me."

"No way," Ruby said. "How?"

Blake looked away. "I don't want to talk about it."

"No, I mean what could you have possibly spent so long on that it rivaled the time it takes Yang to get ready? I'm not making conversation or trying to make fun of you. I am legitimately curious."

"As am I," Weiss added in.

Blake buried her face in her hands. "My hair," she said in a whisper almost too quiet to hear.

"Doesn't look any different," Weiss said.

"Exactly. It requires a bit of maintenance every month or so."

"I didn't expect you to be the type to worry about that sort of thing," Yang said. "But I'm happy you do. Your hair is very pretty."

"Shut up. I don't care."

"You obviously do, though," Ruby piped in.

"Okay, fine. I like having decent hair. Is it such a crime that I have to be interrogated about it?"

Ruby and Weiss exchanged questioning looks. Did they come on too strong?

"Sorry," Weiss said. "We got carried away."

"Yeah," Ruby said. "It's just that, we've been teammates for so long now and we've been through so much and I just realized how little I actually know about you."

"That's..." Blake fiddled with her shirt's topmost button nervously. "Actually kind of nice."

She was totally getting embarrassed. Go Ruby!

"So you'll open up to me and the rest of us more from now on?"

Blake frowned. "I plead entrapment."

"Overruled," Yang said. Why was she the judge?

"Corruption of the court?"

"No."

"Conflict of interest for the judge?"

"Indeed. It appears we'll need a replacement. Weiss?"

"I have no idea what we're talking about. You guys watch too many crime dramas."

"That's slander," Ruby said.

"It's true though." Yang said. She turned to Weiss. "Anyway, just say "Overruled" and we can get going."

Weiss really wanted to say the other thing just for the hell of it, but unfortunately didn't remember it. "Overruled," she said.

Blake sighed. "Guess it can't be helped then." She got up and walked out the door. "You guys coming?"

* * *

"Shotgun girl rides shotgun," Yang yelled and got in the front.

A short limo ride later, they reached downtown Vale. Everyone was strangely quiet.

After they split up with JNPR, Ruby told her team she needed to talk to Cinder about tournament stuff and that they should go on ahead.

Then she went up to Cinder, who dismissed Emerald and Mercury.

"I have a few questions," Ruby said quietly. "First off, what has been dubbed as "The breach" was the plan you told me about, correct?"

"Yes. Roman may have executed it poorly, but it still worked."

"You said you did it so that a later terrorist attack wouldn't be as effective, right? Who are the other terrorists? Who are you fighting against?

"I'm afraid I can't say," Cinder said. "It would put the mission in danger. I'm sure you understand."

"The only people that would benefit from it are the Council of Remnant, who want Ozpin to appear incompetent," Ruby said. That was the only thing that made sense.

"Maybe you're right, maybe you aren't. Like I said, telling you would make things difficult."

"You said they were going to do something worse. What proof do you have? You must have something if you were willing to do what you did."

"I have plenty, but not much I can show you. You should be able to figure a lot of it out by just looking around."

"So, no proof?"

"Is it surprising that people who planned something like this would cover their tracks? If I had definitive proof, I could have exposed them and I wouldn't have needed to go as far as I did."

"Let me get this straight, you caused hundreds of deaths without having a shred concrete proof?"

"I have proof. Just not any I can show you."

"Why not?"

"Because it's dangerous. You're not getting anything out of me. There's too much riding on this mission. Now, let's get to business. Tomorrow Roman is going to make a scene in the middle of the festival. Arresting him would be beneficial to both of us. Try to get it done."

Way to change the subject.

"You saying that makes me want to keep him from getting arrested," Ruby said. "Why do you want him out of the way?"

"I don't. I want him right in the middle of it. Besides, the White Fang want his head, so it might even serve to protect him."

"You know, if you only said the second part I might have believed it."

Cinder smiled. "Caring about him would be too uncharacteristic for me. Besides, I don't want to keep you out of the loop. Makes it much easier if I need you to do something."

Ruby could almost feel a noose tightening around her neck. "Or I could do nothing. The White Fang will get their blood and you won't get what you want."

"You could. And he'll get arrested anyway. But let me remind you of something. Roman is human. Do you really want to give the White Fang more ammunition than they already have?"

So she was going to have Roman attack faunus? "I could tell the White Fang of your intentions."

"What makes you think they aren't in agreeance? In this plan of mine no matter what you do, I will always win. If you do what I say, everyone else wins as well. Especially you. That shiny new title of yours is going to have a lot more weight behind it if you're responsible for the capture a famous criminal like him."

Ruby wasn't tempted. She could swear on her mother's grave that she wasn't tempted. However, she didn't want innocent people getting hurt. Getting closer to Cinder also meant she would be able to do that much more when she finally flips the table and goes to Ozpin. As much as she hated to let herself be manipulated, the best possible situation was to do exactly what Cinder wanted.

That didn't mean she couldn't find out some other stuff first. "Why don't you do it yourself? You got your hands dirty in the Breach."

"There's a difference between fighting Grimm in defense of a city and handing in a criminal like Torchwick. I just don't want to be associated with him. At least not yet. Too dangerous. You don't have that problem."

"No, I have the problem of telling my team how I knew what was going to happen."

"You'll think of something. Also, as you should expect, I'm not asking you to do it for free. I have a gift ready for you. One you will absolutely love."

Ruby was extremely doubtful of that. "Honestly, I would prefer it if you told me when your next attack will be."

"Attack? Kid, half the military force in Remnant is here because of the tournament. I'm not stupid enough to try anything for a while. You saw how many times I nearly got busted since we've known each other. The current crisis has been averted and the next one is a long time from now. I'll tell you when you need to know."

"In other words, you're not going to try anything anytime soon?"

"Nothing of that scale, at least," she confirmed. "I do have a small thing ready for the tournament, but you really shouldn't worry too much."

"A small thing?"

"Yes. I hacked the system that determines the initial pairs. I'm going to conduct a bit of an experiment on just how powerful the people who enter really are. I was also asked by the White Fang to make a certain battle with one of their former operatives happen. Feel free to warn her if you can think of a way of doing it without arousing suspicion."

The White Fang were going after Blake? Ruby definitely had to think of some way of warning her.

Cinder continued. "That brings me to another thing I wanted to talk to you about. Do you want the two of us to fight? I heard you held your own against Roman, so it seems I've severely misjudged your abilities. Something like if we actually fought in that tower. Without the risk of death or permanent injury. How about it? You can't tell me you're not curious about how it would have gone."

"I didn't have my weapon fighting Roman," Ruby said. "I don't think it would have made a difference, though. It was Neo I had trouble against."

Cinder smiled. "Neopolitan probably didn't want Roman to hurt you. She does things like that. And then she mercilessly stabs someone to compensate. She's one of the few people I just don't get."

"Are you saying I didn't win against Roman?"

"His words were, and I quote: She actually hit me. I was this close to fighting her seriously."

"So I don't get Roman either?"

"You don't need to get people to use them. Or fight them in your case. Although I would recommend that you avoid doing that with Neopolitan if you can."

"You could tell me a weakness," Ruby said. It was worth a shot.

"Nah. Figure it out yourself. Anyway, about our fight, are you in?"

Ruby wondered. It was supposed to be safe, but there had been deaths in the past. On the other hand, she really wanted to see how far she could corner Cinder. She was probably going to hold back considerably in order to avoid arousing suspicion, which meant Ruby might just stand a chance.

"Yeah, I'm in."

* * *

"She's taking too long," Yang said. "And I'm hungry."

"Go find food then," Weiss said. "We'll find you when Ruby gets here."

"Okay," Yang said and left them.

A few seconds later, she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned around but found no one there.

Then she felt it again. She turned around again and still found no one.

"Ruby, I swear if this is you trying to be funny," she said under her breath.

"Not Ruby," a voice said from behind her. She immediately recognized it.

When Yang turned around for the third time, there was the owner of that voice staring back at her.

"Hi," the woman said. Yang was surprised by the sudden friendliness and even more so by the way she was dressed. The simple shirt and jeans contrasted wildly with the elaborate outfits Yang saw her in before.

Yang couldn't think of what to say except for "Hi."

"Walk with me," the woman said and took Yang's hand and led her down the street.

"Wait, I have to find my team," Yang said. "They might be looking for me."

"They're not. I can tell. Now, let's get something to eat. We have some things to talk about."

"Wait. I don't even know your name. Who are you?"

"My name is Raven Branwen. That should be more than enough."

Yang shook her hand off. "You." She said, glaring at the woman.

"Yeah, me. What?"

"Where have you been the last seventeen years?"

Raven's light smile twisted into something very unpleasant to look at. "We're not talking about that."

"Why not? I have every right to know why I grew up without my real mother."

"Let's get something straight here. Summer Rose was your real mother. I'm the one that popped you out and that's it. She was the one that raised you. She was the one that changed your fucking diapers. I have had nothing to do with you until this very moment. Now move before we make a scene."

She was right. People were starting to look at them. Yang reluctantly started walking after her until they reached a small restaurant. They sat down and she continued her thought. "What I want to know is why she was the one that raised me. Why didn't you?"

"Because I was nowhere near ready to raise a child. Hell, I'm not ready the way I am now and I'm a million times wiser. Be glad you got someone who knew what she was doing."

"Even then it would have been better than nothing," Yang said. "You must know about it."

"Summer's death? Yeah, I heard. Served her right for taking a mission like that."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Yang almost yelled, slamming her fist on the table.

"That maybe if she had any sort of common sense when I'm not around to restrain her she wouldn't have taken an off-the-records mission like that one."

"What?" was the only thing Yang could say. She had no idea what Raven was talking about.

"Figure it out yourself. I'm not going to do your digging for you. You're the one who really cares anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean? If you're going to accuse my mother of something back your accusations up."

"That only works for people who care whether others think they're right or not. I couldn't care less." Raven took a drink from a beer she had somehow communicated to a waitress she wanted. "But enough about that. It's not the reason I wanted us to meet."

"Then what is?" Yang asked. After all that time spent looking for her birth mother, she couldn't believe that when she finally met her the only thing she wanted was to get as far away from her as possible.

"You need to learn to fight in a way that can't be considered suicidal. You don't evaluate the danger when getting into a fight which means that if the person you're fighting isn't feeling merciful and I'm not around to save you there's a very real possibility of you dying. I thought I'd warn you before it happens."

"You're giving me fighting tips?"

"No. I'm giving you survival tips. Do you know what would have happened if I hadn't stepped in on that train? You'd be dead. How about that? Did that cross your mind when you offered to fight her on your own? Did you think "Oh, I might die, but it's okay as long as I slow her down a little." or something? Or did you simply not think about it, which is even stupider."

"I didn't plan on dying."

"So what, you thought you could take her? You, with no experience in fighting an illusionist and with no natural defense against one?"

"I didn't know she was an illusionist. I don't even know what that means."

"So you didn't even know? You saw a girl who could practically do anything she wants to and thought, "Well it's not like I'm going to lose against just that."? Or did you actually have some sort of plan in spite of the fact that you obviously didn't even have a clue how to even start fighting against her?"

Raven looked like she was taking a breath to continue her rant, so Yang said, "I get it"

Surprisingly, Raven smiled. "Do you?"

"Yeah. I get it. I shouldn't have urged my teammates to go ahead. It seemed like the best solution at the time, but I know how stupid it was. You have my gratitude for saving me, and don't worry, I won't get into a situation where you'll have to do it again." Yang got up to leave.

"Looking into my own eyes is weird after all," Raven said, just loud enough for Yang to hear. Yang found a mirror and saw that she did indeed have her red eyes. They looked exactly like Raven's. That made her stop and sit back down.

"Why are your eyes always like that?" She asked. "If they're like my semblance-powered self's, then they can't be your normal eyes."

"They aren't and are." Raven replied. "I'm afraid explaining any better would take a while."

"I've got time."

Raven sighed. "Fine. My eyes are my natural eye color, but are also a part of my semblance. It seems you inherited that particular trait from me and somehow, don't ask me how, made my eye color into a part of your semblance. Now can you switch them back? It's unnerving."

"Now, was that so hard?" Yang took a deep breath and calmed herself down. She didn't mean to activate her semblance anyway. That woman was just so infuriating. Giving her a lecture, of all people.

"About as hard as your boyfriend's cock inside of me last night." That. Was. Surprising.

"So, not at all?"

Raven raised a finger to deliver her punchline, thought for a few seconds and said, "I got nothing. You win."

"What, no comeback?"

"If I wanted my cum back I would have wiped it off your mother's face last night..." She had a smug grin that disappeared shortly after she realized what she'd said. "Wait... Shit."

Yang struggled to hide her grin. She set that up with that exact comeback in mind. It was flawless.

"Well fuck you too," Raven said. "I'll have you know I really haven't had any practice with immature jokes since I graduated the third grade."

"You're the one that started it," Yang said.

"That's the joke, but I guess you're too immature to get it."

Yeah, sure. "You know, you're not as bad as you pretend to be."

"Well that just makes me want to cut your arm off to prove I am." Raven said. Yang was ninety percent sure she was joking, but the way she said it made her feel like she should drop the subject.

"Fine. You're bad."

"Anyway, your team's going to pass by here in a few seconds, so if you don't want to look for them all night, you'd better get going."

"How do you know?" Yang asked while rising from her chair.

"No time." Raven said. "Run left after you go out. Look for the white head."

Yang was almost sure Raven was just trying to get her to go away, but she didn't mind. She'd had enough of her as well.

At the door she turned around and sure enough, Raven was gone along with the beer she had.

* * *

That face seemed all too familiar to Weiss. After all, it was the same face she saw every time she looked at a mirror. Well, almost the same.

"I have to go check something," she told Blake.

"I'll wait for Ruby," Blake said. Weiss went over to the person who definitely shouldn't be there.

"Winter?"

"Shh, I'm Wintry right now."

"What?"

"A disguise. See?"

Winter showed off her outfit.

"You look exactly the same as you always do."

"No, I don't. I have a hat and I did my hair differently and I made my eyebrows thinner."

"You're wearing a dress, you always wear some sort of idiotic hat and do you honestly think that anyone looking at you will go: "Hey, that looks like one of the Schnee girls, we should kidnap her." "Nah, man. Can't you see her eyebrows are too thin?" Come on." Weiss dragged her sister away from the main street and soon Blake and Ruby caught up.

"What's going on?" Blake asked.

"Someone extremely stupid just showed up."

"Hey!"

"That's not very nice, Weiss." Ruby said. Then she looked at Winter more closely and then back at Weiss. "Why are there two of you?"

Weiss sighed. "Everyone meet my twin sister Winter. Winter, meet my team. Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna and Yang should be around here somewhere."

"Like I said, I'm Wintry right now," she mumbled.

"Why is your sister trying to hide her identity?" Blake asked.

"Ask her."

"Well you said Vale might be dangerous for me and I couldn't bring my guards, so I thought it would be a good idea..." Winter trailed off. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"I think your idea was good, but the execution was a little lacking," Ruby said gently. "Here, I'll buy you some temporary hair dye and I can dig up one of my old yukatas. It'll probably be a little small, but you should look less out of place in it." Before anyone could tell her to wait, Ruby disappeared into the crowd.

"I'm sorry," Winter said. "I thought I'd surprise you, but I guess I made some trouble for you again."

"It's fine. I'm used to it."

"You could have comforted me or something. I'd like to feel like you think I'm good for something once in a while."

Weiss noticed that Blake looked extremely uncomfortable being in the middle of their conversation. She mouthed "Go" at her and she slipped into the crowd.

"Winter, since when do you care what I think?"

"You are my sister. Of course I care if you think I'm worthless or not."

Weiss looked away. Why did Winter have to do this right now? Couldn't she wait until after the festival?

"You know, for the longest time I couldn't tell what you were thinking and it was really scary. I thought all you wanted was to push me down a well or something. Lately I've been reconsidering my opinion of you and dad and I have to say, I was completely wrong." She took a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is, I was completely wrong in my assumptions about you. I don't think that the two of us can ever really know what the other is thinking. That's why we need to talk about it."

"I could never want that. I realized pretty early on that I'm the one that has it easy," Winter said.

"I guess I can see why you would think that. But on the other hand, some people work their entire lives to accomplish something and when dad dies I'm going to just get a thousand times more than if I tried to do something on my own. I really am more blessed than even I can imagine. Someday I will have enough power to shape the future of this world. You can't say you have it better than that."

"Like I said, I realized I'm too stupid and lazy to deal with responsibility like that. I'll leave it to you and live my own life."

"You're still smart in your own way. You're also resourceful and I think the fact that you came all the way here just to see me, even after I told you that you might be in danger speaks volumes for your bravery."

Winter giggled. "Isn't saying I'm smart in my own way like saying I'm actually stupid and you don't want to break it to me?"

"I was trying to be nice, you know."

Weiss noticed Ruby's head in the crowd. "Here's my partner. She'll take care of you and I'll go get you something to eat. You're probably hungry after a day of train hopping."

* * *

Blake decided that her best course of action would probably be to find Yang. However, Yang seemed to have disappeared into thin air, so she was reduced to wandering the streets looking for her.

Where could she have gone?

Thinking that, Blake continued looking around. Yang's hair was pretty distinct, so she was sure she would know it if she saw it.

After a full pass of the main street, she started getting worried.

She saw Weiss in front of a food stall and asked her if she had seen Yang.

"I haven't." Weiss said. "She's probably off doing her own thing like she was at the dance. I wouldn't worry too much."

"Well I am worried. She knows this is supposed to be a team activity and she knows how dangerous things have been getting lately."

"What do you mean dangerous?" Weiss asked. "I sincerely doubt there's going to be another Grimm invasion this soon and it's not like Roman and the White Fang go around attacking random hunters for no reason. All the times we've faced them, we have been the ones to initiate the conflict and he has been nice enough to let us go multiple times."

"Doesn't mean Yang isn't prone to doing something stupid."

That gave Weiss pause. "True, but I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that half the military force on Remnant is in this city, watching over this very festival. Any danger will get squashed out as soon as it appears."

"That only works if we know they are on our side," Blake said.

Weiss dropped the skewer of dango she was holding. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I've seen too many weird things recently to trust people to be on our side. The White Fang working with a human doesn't sound very believable, but them being willing to lay down their lives for him is so bizarre I'm starting to wonder what has them so scared they'd need to resort to that."

Weiss shook her head throughout the entirety of Blake's second sentence. "Are you saying you're starting to wonder if we are fighting on the right side?"

"You misunderstand. I'm not saying we should betray Beacon or something. I'm saying we shouldn't feel safe just because we have no reason to feel threatened. We shouldn't lower our guards during calm times, since that's exactly when an enemy is most likely to attack."

"So basically you're saying we should be more paranoid?" Weiss rolled her eyes in a way that clearly told Blake she was being annoying, but that didn't mean she wasn't right. "I'll go that way."

Blake went in the opposite direction. She continued until she reached the end of the festival street and found something very different from what she was looking for.

There were a bunch of faunus there, who all turned to her. One of them extended his hand and in it was a mask. Blake recognized it. It was hers.

"What is this," she asked. She reached back for her weapon.

"A warning," the faunus said. "Very soon you won't be able to run away from who you are."

"How did you find me?"

"It does not matter. Prepare yourself. Your old partner will be coming for you."

Adam? She couldn't let her team get caught up with someone like him.

They started walking away.

"Wait. What do you want from me?"

"Nothing," one of them turned around and said. "It's what he wants you should worry about."

* * *

This was so exciting. Meeting Weiss' sister was like a dream come true for Ruby.

"Hi again," she said. "I got you a blue yukata and black hair dye."

"I always wanted to have pink hair," Winter complained. She really sounded spoiled.

"You can always buy another color tomorrow. This will wash out in the shower, so you need to make sure you have enough for the next day before you wash it off."

"Ooh, maybe I'll be a redhead tomorrow. Or green. I always thought I would look great in green."

Ruby realized that Winter wasn't listening to her. However, she was probably going to buy enough dye for the next decade when she got the chance, so it didn't really matter.

"Here, put this over your dress," she said, hanging her the yukata. "I'll tie your obi for you."

Winter obliged and then all that was left was to dye her hair.

"How is that going to work without destroying your clothes," Winter asked.

"It's a spray," Ruby said. "We just spray it away from you and hope for the best."

Ruby didn't know why Winter wanted to hide who she was, but she didn't really care. This was fun.

She gathered sections of her ridiculously long hair and sprayed them with the dye. It took a while, but the effect was pretty good.

"The length is still pretty distinctive, though," she said.

"Don't worry about it, I have an idea," Winter said. That made Ruby more worried. "Now look away for a second." That made Ruby even more worried, to the point where she was wondering if she should call Weiss.

About half a minute later, she was given the go ahead to turn around. Winter's hair was tied into a large bun with two thin white sticks sticking out of it.

"That's amazing," Ruby said. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"School."

"They teach those things in Atlas?"

"No, a friend thought me how to do it while in school."

"Oh." Ruby felt the conversation come to a stop and started wondering what to do. This was really bad. "Anyway, let's go find the others."

"Indeed. I wouldn't want my sister to worry."

"Yeah, me too. I bet Yang's already looking for me."

They went out into the crowd.

"Did you go to a combat school?" Ruby asked upon seeing Winter walk. Her stride was like that of a fighter. Or dancer.

"Nope. I went to a private girls' school. They thought us all about how to be a proper lady and we thought each other how to be as far from that as possible. I even started a boxing club."

"I can't imagine that went well."

"Oh, it went spectacularly. For a week half the student body turned up with bruises all over their faces and bodies before the teachers figured it out. I was suspended for a week."

"I'm surprised they didn't kick you out."

"They wanted to, but my last name stopped them."

That's right. Even if she wasn't an heiress, Winter was still a Schnee. "I'm guessing your father gave them incentive not to do it?"

"He used to give the school some very generous donations. Naturally, if I was kicked out, those donations would stop. Of course once I dropped out he stopped anyway and the school is struggling, last I heard."

"You dropped out?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. Isn't it harder to get a job if you don't have an education?"

"Not when your father owns the company." Good point. Why did Ruby keep forgetting that Winter was a Schnee? Maybe because she felt so normal it was eerie to think of her and Weiss as sisters. "And even if he didn't, military service in Atlas is very well paid and relatively safe. You don't need a degree in math to fire a gun. Unless it's a really big gun, I guess."

"Even then, you're better off relying on feeling and experience."

"Really? From what I've heard the way it works with our defense system is they do hundreds of calculations about wind and distance and stuff before firing every shot."

Oh, she was talking about guns that big. "Well, yeah, if you can afford to it's obviously better to do that. I don't think you'll need a Math degree to operate a computer, though."

"That's right." Winter said as if it was a huge discovery. "I gotta change my career."

Weiss was going to kill them both. "Please don't."

She pouted like a child. "Fine."

Crisis averted.

* * *

Ren didn't know how exactly to bring up what he wanted to say. The rest of his team was drinking and laughing, but he had something very important he had to tell them.

"What's up," Nora asked him. Of course she noticed.

Jaune and Pyrrha quieted down as well and looked at him.

"Jaune, Pyrrha, I was wondering if it would be okay with the two of you if Nora and I split off for a bit."

"Sure, but why?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha looked curious as well.

They were going to make him say it, weren't they?

"Because I want to take my partner out on a date since we haven't had a chance to since we got back from that mission."

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Wait, what?" Jaune asked.

"Didn't I tell you guys?" Nora asked. "I must have forgotten. We're together together."

"Don't you always say how you aren't?" Pyrrha asked.

"Now we are," Nora answered. "You see, we went through a very dramatic spiritual journey on that mission during which we found our feelings for each other to not be just those of friends. We confessed our undying love and kissed beneath the moonlight."

"It was daytime, we didn't kiss and the rest is actually not as inaccurate as you might expect."

Jaune and Pyrrha looked like they were in shock.

"Really should get around to that kissing if you ask me," Nora said and got closer. Too close.

"I think two things need to happen first," Ren said, doing his best to keep his composure. "First, we should go on an actual date, and second, I really think we should visit dad."

Nora's expression was not that of a pleased woman, but she nodded. "You're right. The date's easy, but we'll have to take time off if we want to visit dad."

"Take a week after the tournament," Jaune offered. "Pyrrha and I'll manage."

"Yay! Thanks, Jaune," Nora said and jumped up in triumph.

"Are you sure?" Ren asked him. Work was steadily piling up and with half the team gone it might turn out to be too much for them.

"Yeah. You guys deserve it. I'll do the paperwork first thing tomorrow." He took a drink. "Anyway, have fun on your date."

Ren and Nora got up from the bench they were sitting on and Jaune and Pyrrha were left alone.

"You know," Pyrrha said. Then she didn't say anything else.

"What?" Jaune asked.

She seemed conflicted, as if she didn't know whether to say what was on her mind. "I really wish I could have something like that," she said. "Have someone who I've loved forever fall in love with me as well."

"It does sound good," Jaune agreed. But then again, he knew it would never happen. Sure, Weiss was friendlier to him lately, but that made the distance between them all the more obvious.

She was in a league of her own, wasn't she?

"Hey Jaune," Pyrrha said and then stopped herself again.

This time, Jaune didn't prompt her. She would say it eventually.

"What would you do if I told you I loved you?"

It wasn't unexpected, but it was still hard to answer. "I would tell you that I respect you immensely and that I wish I could respond to your feelings," he said. It was a horrible answer. Really, he was the worst. But it was all he had. He couldn't lie to her.

"Then I won't say it," Pyrrha said and knocked her bottle back. "Now, the night is young and we have some partying to do." She got up. "Are you with me?"

"Yeah."

"That wasn't very enthusiastic, was it? Doesn't matter. I'll be with you until the end of the world."

That was reassuring. It felt good to know that he will always have someone to rely on. "So will I," he said. "Right now I can't offer you more, but I will offer you my eternal friendship. It's the least I could do. These past months, you've been the best friend I've ever had."

There was a resounding crack of Pyrrha's bottle breaking in her grip.

Neither of them commented on it.

* * *

Ren and Nora were sitting on a bench with Nora eating ice cream and Ren wondering what he should do.

"So, you didn't think this date thing through, did you?" Nora asked.

"No, I did not. I thought it would be a simple enough matter to make it up as we go along."

"Such a thing requires a creative touch that is, at least in my opinion, beyond you."

"At least I know you're always going to be honest with me," Ren said. "What do you think we should do?"

"I don't care," she said. "Whatever you want is fine."

"That doesn't help me."

"Was I supposed to help you?"

"If you want to. This is our first official date, but if you want it to fail then that's fine."

"Okay, fine," she said and grabbed Ren's hand. "Let's go."

* * *

Weiss had apparently managed to find Yang and Blake found them soon after that, which meant that it was finally time for team RWBY to have some fun. Oh, and Winter too.

There was one thing that bothered Ruby, though. She noticed the people around them were whispering more than usual. It wasn't unsurprising, considering the fact that they were huntresses, but she was surprised by the fact that most people's comments weren't aimed at Weiss or Yang, or even Winter, but at her.

"What's going on," she asked Yang quietly. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

"You were on the news sis," Yang said. "They said you were the commanding officer on the field during the Grimm invasion. I think you even have a fanclub."

"What?! Are you serious?" She felt her knees go weak. So many people were looking at her and would be disappointed if she tripped and fell. Ruby could barely walk.

"Yep. Start getting used to it." Yang said. She wasn't being helpful at all.

"No way in hell. This is horrible. I'm never going outside again."

"That's almost funny," Weiss said morbidly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby snapped at her.

"You freaking out after spending a second in my world."

Ruby opened her mouth to argue, but she couldn't. Weiss was right. Something like this was everyday life for the Schnee heiress. Ruby wasn't about to lose to her. She built up her resolution and took a step forward. Then another.

"Taking life one step at a time?" Weiss asked.

"Stay out of my head."

"She wouldn't be so successful if you didn't always let her know she's right," Blake said.

"Too late," Weiss said. "I already know her too well. You, however, have been a little distracted since we got back together. Did something happen?"

Blake had no idea what to say to that. She definitely didn't want to discuss the Adam problem, least of all in public. She went with "Stay out of my head."

"Here's a way to do it," Ruby said. "Talk to us so Weiss doesn't need to resort to reading your mind to figure out there's something wrong."

"Here's what you really need to do," Winter said. "You have to guess what she's going to think you're going to think and then think something different."

"Wouldn't that give Weiss absolute control over my thoughts and actions?"

"Yeah." Winter sounded dejected.

Blake realized that she was indeed being too gloomy. She had to cheer up, at least while they were at the festival if she didn't want to ruin everyone's night.

"I can't read her by the way," Weiss said, nodding at Winter to indicate that she was talking about her. "I think she may be so stupid she's immune."

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding," Weiss said quickly. "I think it's more like you're too carefree for me to predict what you're going to find entertaining next. Or something like that."

"What is that?" Winter asked, pointing at a goldfish scooping stall.

"My point exactly," Weiss said.

"You try to catch goldfish with a paper scooper. Any you catch you can bring home," Yang explained. "I'm actually one of the few of us who can do it since my semblance doesn't make it unfair."

"Mine doesn't." Blake said.

"Neither does mine," Weiss said. "If I don't use it."

Everyone turned to Ruby. "I'm banned. I was too good, so they won't let me play anymore."

"Your semblance is unfair," Yang said. "You have all the time in the world to make a move and can empty out the entire pool in seconds while the rest of us have to pay for stronger scoopers and we still consider ourselves lucky if we catch anything at all."

"Like I said, too good."

"Wouldn't our combat reflexes make us unfit as well?" Weiss asked. "And Blake has a natural advantage on top of that."

"What?" Winter asked.

"I will hit you," Blake said to Weiss.

"It's fine," Yang said. "It won't help you at all. If anything, those violent reflexes get in the way."

"You're the only one who's violent though," Ruby muttered.

Sure enough, Weiss, Blake and even Winter caught a fish on their first try.

After six broken scoopers, Yang gave up.

"I hate you all," she said.

"Love you too, sis," Ruby said while playing with Winter's fish.

Blake had a different dilemma to deal with.

She was going to eat the fish.

She looked around and when she was sure that no one was looking at her, she quickly put the small fish in her mouth and bit down.

Then she was brought out of her bliss by the sound of Weiss giggling.

"I can't believe you did that," she said.

Blake wished she could melt into the pavement or something. Then she remembered her clones.

That wasn't going to be effective against Weiss, though. She decided to go with the truth.

"It's a compulsion, okay. Instinct. I can't help it."

"I know that. The funny bit was where you looked around carefully before doing it. Although maybe doing it smoothly with no hesitation would have been even better. Try that in front of Ruby and Yang."

"What? No way."

"Come on. It'll be fun. Here." She handed Blake her own fish. Damn it.

Blake tried not thinking about it, but she couldn't take it off her mind. It moved around too much. She smoothly took it out and ate it as well.

Winter looked horrified.

"Y-you just ate that."

That gave Ruby and Yang pause. So they really wouldn't have noticed?

"Winter, it doesn't matter. Blake likes fish." Weiss said.

"But she just ate it. Just like that. Like it's supposed to be normal. Wait, is it normal?"

"In some parts of Remnant I'm sure it is," Weiss said. "Why do you even care? You eat meat all the time."

"It was supposed to be a pet though. You wouldn't eat a dog."

"Dogs taste terrible, so no, I wouldn't." Blake said. That time, Ruby and Yang had the same expression as Winter. "You were the ones who wanted to know more about me," she reminded them.

"Where did you even find one?" Weiss asked.

"Outside. They're more common than you'd think. Grimm don't attack animals and we hunted everything else to the point where it was harder to find."

"If that's true, we could make a fortune," Winter declared. "Dogs are crazy expensive in Atlas. We could catch some and I could sell them and we'd split the profits fifty/fifty."

"Sounds fair," Blake said. "But I don't want to go anywhere near dogs."

"Why bother?" Weiss asked. "No one here needs money that badly."

"I have my expenses," Winter said. "But it's fine if you don't want to. I totally understand."

"Good," Ruby said. "I will not have my team chasing poodles a day before the tournament."

"Speaking of," Weiss said. "Are we training with that Cinder girl tomorrow?"

"No, why?"

"I thought that's what you talked about."

"Nah, she wanted to know about Crescent Rose. Surprising really. I didn't peg her for a weapons enthusiast. Do you want to fight her?"

Weiss bit her lip. "A little. She feels really strong and I can't read her at all. I might try to track down Velvet tomorrow anyway and try to get her to teach me something."

"I'll ask on our way back," Ruby said. "And I'll talk to Coco about lending us Velvet tomorrow."

"Thanks," Weiss said.

"What's with the sudden interest in fighting?" Yang asked. "First you beat a member of CFVY, now you're looking to pick a fight with a Haven exchange student?"

"It's fun," Weiss said. "And I'm also curious to see how far I can go. I'm actually pretty strong, even if most of you wouldn't know it because I always seem to mess something up." She looked around and her eyes settled on a store. "Are we doing fireworks, by the way?"

Way to change the subject.

"I guess not." Ruby said. "We haven't bought any."

"I'll go ahead and do that then," Weiss said and walked off in the direction of the store.

"This place is weird," Winter said when Weiss was out of earshot. "In Atlas we'd just have a parade, but there's all kinds of different things here."

"That's what this festival is all about," Ruby explained. "I think there was a parade earlier today and there should be one tomorrow. The goldfish scooping game is from Mistral and all you need to do to find some Vacuan culture would be to go into one of the bars. This festival actually looks fairly similar wherever you go. That's the beauty of it."

"Unity through diversity," Winter said. "Fits the theme, I guess."

"Exactly," Ruby said.

"Hey guys," Yang said. "I see a shooting gallery over there. You wanna check it out while Weiss isn't around?"

"What if she wants to do it with us?" Blake asked.

"She wouldn't," Winter confirmed.

They shot at stuff until Weiss made it back.

"Who's winning?" she asked.

"Probably Ruby," Blake answered. "We weren't keeping score."

"Can I try?"

Blake handed her the rifle. The look on Winter's face was the most surprised Blake had seen anyone look.

"You line up the back sights with the front and your target," Blake said.

"I know," Weiss said. She fired three shots and after hitting nothing gave the gun back. "I'm just depressingly bad at it."

Weiss turned to Winter. "Here," she said and handed her a package. "I thought I should get you something you'd like since you came to visit me."

"You're supposed to say "It's not like I like you or anything" after that, you know."

"Do you want me to take it back?"

Winter unwrapped it eagerly and found a single large shot of fireworks. "Warning, contains a large amount of ice dust. Do not fire indoors." She stopped reading. "Anyone dumb enough to do that deserves to get frozen into an icicle."

"Maybe, but their neighbors or the people they were showing off in front of don't."

"True. So, how much will this do?"

"It's advertised to make five minutes of snow, but I'm pretty sure that's overselling it."

Winter examined it carefully. "I bet it's going to be at least ten."

"Winter..."

"Relax. I'm just going to tweak it a little." She took a pouch of dust from somewhere under her yukata and poured the contents inside the firework.

"If icicles start falling out of the sky, it's not my fault."

"Have a little faith, sis." Winter said.

Weiss called everyone else over and gave them their fireworks.

"We should move closer to the square so that we see all the other fireworks as well," Ruby said.

"Sounds good," Yang said.

They all went to the nearest square. It wasn't the biggest, but it would do.

"What's that?" Blake asked, looking at Winter's contraption.

"Fireworks modified by Winter." Weiss said. "Supposedly it should make it snow. She did something to it so now it'll probably start raining ice boulders."

"I know what I'm doing," Winter grumbled.

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing you." Weiss said and heard the first fireworks going off. "Yang, can we get a light?"

"What am I, a walking lighter?"

"I was asking for the lighter in your pocket, but if you want to show off, that's fine."

Yang looked around and then snapped her fingers. A low flame appeared.

"Whoa, I had no idea you got this good at it," Ruby said. "She used to burn everything in sight when she tried that."

"You can tell embarrassing stories later. I'd rather not freak out everyone around us."

Weiss noticed a couple looking at them and whispering.

"Get on with it."

Winter extended her hands and Yang lit the fuse.

Then Winter got a mischievous grin on her face. "You may want to find somewhere to hide. I'm going to do something embarrassing."

Yang grinned and said, "I'm in."

"We don't have much of a choice," Ruby said.

Blake had mysteriously disappeared into the crowd.

The fuse was nearly burned out.

"Let it be known that on this day Winter came to Vale!" Winter yelled at the top of her lungs. Her words were drowned out by the commotion in the square, but a small girl like her shouting like that attracted some attention.

Then the firework went off and rained snow everywhere on its way up and started spinning in a large circle, hovering in the air over the square, continuing to drop snow down.

Yang raised Winter on her shoulders. Winter put her hands in the air as the crowd around them cheered.

Ruby and Weiss edged away from the main crowd and looked at the two of them having fun.

"They really get along, don't they," Ruby said.

"Yang can get along with anyone and Winter's an easy person to get along with. Putting the two of them together turns into... that."

"Yeah," Ruby said and brushed the snow out of her hair.

In the middle of summer, snow kept falling for over twenty minutes. Kids rolled around in it and threw snowballs at each other. In one corner of the square a massive snowman appeared while no one was looking.

Two people approached Ruby and Weiss. Weiss recognized them to be the couple that had been looking at Yang earlier.

"Hello," Weiss greeted them.

"Hello. We wanted to say something to your blonde friend, but unfortunately we have to leave. Could you pass on the message?" The man spoke.

"Depends on the message."

"We just wanted to tell her that while there may be many people who are unnerved by seeing a semblance in a civilian area, there are also a lot of us that find it fascinating. Anyway, sorry for interrupting you. Have a nice night."

They turned to leave.

"Wait," Weiss said. She then produced a small glyph on the palm of her hand. She crushed it and smiled. "You have a nice night too."

Someone tapped their shoulders from behind and they saw that Blake had gotten them some more food.

"I'm going to be fat by the time this is over," Weiss said.

"Once again, my metabolism is the best thing in the world," Ruby said happily and dug in.

"I hate you," Weiss said and dug in as well.

"Let's see if we can get our drama queens' attention," Blake said and waved a plate of food in the air while Yang was looking at them.

"I love you," Yang said and started eating as soon as she was close enough.

"Hold your own plate," Blake said.

Yang took her plate and continued slurping her fried noodles.

"Real subtle, Wintry." Weiss said when her sister returned.

"Now you use my alias!"

"Look up sarcasm." Then, something caught her eye. "We should go soon. We may have attracted too much attention," she said.

"What's up?" Ruby asked. How was she already done eating?

Weiss leaned in and whispered in her ear. "There's something I want to show you."

"Just me?"

"Blake and Yang too. Just go along with me. Trust me."

Ruby seemed hesitant, but she said "Okay."

"Winter, we have something we need to do. Are you okay to find a place to sleep on your own?" she said to everyone.

"Sure."

"What is it?" Blake asked.

"Confidential." Ruby said. "Anyway, sorry Winter. We'll make it up to you tomorrow."

* * *

Lionel, a proud member of the White Fang, urged his partner to go ahead.

They had been stalking the Schnee girl ever since she separated from that group of hunters she was with.

It was time.

The two of them moved up until they were right behind her. Lionel reached around in an attempt to grab her around the neck, but a hand swatted his away.

"That isn't nice, you know," the girl said and turned around. How did she even notice them?

His partner looked at Lionel as if questioning what they should do. Lionel had no idea. If they tried anything, he was sure she was going to scream and things were going to get very difficult, especially with all the security because of the recent attack.

"You know," the girl said, "I'm really useless as a hostage. My family would rather have me killed off than pay any ransom. If anything, my death would give them an excuse to go to war against the White Fang."

"Do you really expect us to believe they won't pay for the return of their precious heiress?"

"They would, but that's not me. I'm Winter, not Weiss. See, my eyebrows are thinner."

Was this girl for real? "We've been following you for a while. You act exactly like an heiress would. I think you switched places with the other girl you were with."

"Doesn't the opposite make more sense?" She asked tilting her head to the side. "And just so we're clear, badly following me since the square where I set off the fireworks gets you no credit with me."

She'd noticed? Why didn't she run then? Lionel decided to voice that question.

"What kind of lion runs when a deer's stalking her?" she answered. "Did you think it was a coincidence I chose a dark alley like this?"

"What are you trying to say?" Lionel's partner asked. "We're the ones with guns here. You think you're in any position to act like you've led us into a trap?"

"You know, there used to be a saying in Atlas a while back. It goes: Why don't you want to meet Weiss Schnee in a dark alley?"

"Why?" Lionel asked before his partner could say something stupid.

"Because you really don't want to meet Weiss Schnee at all. She's not a very nice person to hang out with, even if she is my sister. Now, why don't you want to meet Winter Schnee in a dark alley?"

Suddenly, Lionel's lips felt dry. "Why?"

The girl's eyes turned very serious. "Because if she deems you even the tiniest threat, she'll kill you where you stand."

Then she went back to normal and smiled. "That was actually a lie. No one says that. I just thought I should relay to you the kind of situation you're in in a creative fashion." She made a small curtsey in the yukata she was wearing, as if it was a dress. It didn't work at all.

"Let's get her," Lionel said. "She's got to be bluffing and we can't let a chance like this slip by."

The girl smiled. "Winter Dragon," she said quietly and somehow, her words chilled Lionel to the bone.

No, it wasn't her words. He saw his breath in front of him when he exhaled. Why did it get so cold so suddenly?

He looked back to the girl and there was what looked like a thin layer of ice or glass around her body. Was that her aura? No, couldn't be. It was growing. A lot. In a matter of seconds there was a gigantic monster standing in front of them. Its back extended to above the smaller houses and what looked like wings stretched out even further.

"What the actual fuck?!" his partner yelled, while trying to drag Lionel away from that thing.

"Fucking Schnees," Lionel said and started running on his own. Behind them, the sound of that massive monster chasing them filled their ears. The ground shook with each of its footsteps.

A clawed paw descended from above them, forcing them to dodge to the sides of the small road, lest they be squished under it.

How could something that big move that fast, Lionel wondered.

Then what felt like a snout pushed against his back and he redoubled his efforts into running. He didn't know where he was running to, but he wasn't about to stop anytime soon.

He and his partner finally spilled out into a main street and suddenly, the tremors stopped.

The two of them looked back and saw that the monster was carefully walking backwards, trying to keep itself out of sight.

"What the fuck just happened?" his partner said again.

"I don't know," Lionel said. "But I'm really glad we didn't get eaten.

"What the fuck was that thing? It just appeared out of nowhere and tried to kill us! That the hell?"

"Wasn't out of nowhere. It came out of the Schnee, I think. She summoned it or created it or something. Since it didn't chase us out here, I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to get found out any more than we do."

"Why would an heiress care? Wouldn't showing her power benefit her?"

"Because I don't think that was the heiress. I think she was telling the truth. That was some bastard child of the Schnee named Winter. They probably did experiments on her to turn her into something like that, the poor girl." He took a breath. His hands couldn't stop shaking. "If we manage to leak that to the media, we could deal a serious blow to them. Make it known that the Schnee would experiment on their own kin. No one will want to deal with them then."

* * *

"What the hell was that," Ruby asked as she looked away from the scope of her rifle.

"Winter Schnee," Weiss answered.

"Your sister's a dragon?" Yang asked, looking up from her binoculars.

"No, you dunce, she can manipulate ice. I thought it was obvious after that stunt with the fireworks and the snowman."

"She didn't kill them," Blake noted.

"Why would you think she would do such a thing?" Weiss said.

"Because they saw her semblance. That puts her at a disadvantage if they try again."

"This is my sister you're talking about. You met her, right? How do you imagine someone like her killing people in cold blood?"

"I might have been demonizing the Schnee a little too much." Blake admitted. "Still, leaving them like this, rumors are going to spread. What we saw wasn't all that impressive to us because we're used to fighting things much bigger than us. Can you imagine how scared those White Fang were?"

Weiss laughed. "Leave it to my sister to have a pair of terrorists quaking in their boots by not even trying to fight against them?"

"One thing though," Ruby turned to Weiss. "Did you make all of this happen so you could show your sister off?"

Weiss expected that question. "Of course not. I just noticed she was being followed and chose to tell you instead of her. The result being that I got to show off my sister and not be accused of intentionally putting her in danger."

"How is letting people try to kidnap her not putting her in danger?" Yang asked.

"I had the best sniper I know watching her back. Now, let's go pick her up."

They found Winter curled up in a ball in the middle of the street, shivering violently.

Weiss took off her coat and covered her sister. "You are an absolute dolt," she said.

"I know," Winter said through the chattering of her teeth. "I didn't expect them to run that slowly. I had to push one of them so that he'd hurry up."

"Someone care to explain?" Yang asked, looking at Weiss.

Weiss got a good idea. "Get in there with her," she said. "Warm her up a little and she can do the explaining."

Yang complied with surprising ease.

"There isn't anything to explain," Winter said. "Being encased in ice for that long isn't what I would call healthy. I just hope I don't get a cold." On cue, she sneezed and sprayed mucus at everything in front of her. Luckily, Ruby and Blake were fast enough to dodge it. Weiss blocked it with a glyph.

"You're too dumb to catch a cold," Weiss remarked.

"Here," Yang said and hugged Winter. She let her body warm up just enough to not be uncomfortably hot for her. "Move your shoulders around a little, get the blood flowing."

Winter did what she was told and made a low noise of relief.

"Shouldn't your aura have protected you?" Blake asked.

"I need too much of it in order to move and not fall apart. I can keep a reasonable amount if I use a smaller form, but the dragon is more intimidating."

"Which is why you thought it would be a good idea to turn yourself into an icicle," Weiss said. She wasn't angry, though. Not really. "I'll bring the car." At least now she knew no one was going to complain about the heated seats.

"What about everyone we drove here?" Ruby asked.

"Call them and we can meet up." Weiss shouted back while running. Then she created a glyph and shot into the sky.

"Where's the dragon," Blake asked the thing that had been bothering her since they got here. "There should be tons of water or ice around here, but there's nothing."

"It disappears," Winter said. "Don't ask how. Semblances are weird."

"That thing was massive," Blake said. "You mean to tell me something that big can disappear into thin air? What's more, the moisture in the air isn't any higher here than it is anywhere else in the city."

"Like I said, it's weird. My aura absorbs it or something."

"That doesn't make any sense. What I saw here and back at the square was real ice. Not aura."

"That's enough," Ruby said, looking up from her scroll. "She doesn't owe us any answers. We just met her tonight."

Blake bit off her response. She had bigger things to worry about.

Things finally quieted down.

"How are you doing?" Yang asked Winter, who had stopped shivering.

"I'm afraid I'm getting a wiiiiittwe dwowsy," Winter started slurring her words. She rose to her feet and took Weiss' coat off.

"Better?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah." She turned to face Blake. "You seem to think I'm lying to you."

"You are." Blake replied.

"I never lie."

"That's a lie," Weiss said, coming around the corner. She gave Blake a long look. "Now let us go."

"Weiss..." Blake said, but she didn't know where to go from there. Saying that she thought Winter was lying wouldn't do her much good.

"I don't know how the two of you managed to get in a fight and I don't care," Weiss said. "That being said, I am relieved to know I'm not the only person in the world who finds her infuriating."

"Mean," Winter said and followed her sister around the corner.

Weiss climbed in the front and the rest of her team plus Winter piled into the back.

They went around, picking up people until the car was full and then returned to Beacon.

"Wait, I still need to find a place to sleep," Winter realized when they were halfway there.

"I'm not going back down just for that," Weiss said from the front. "You'll sleep in our room. If you behave until we get there, I might even let you sleep in my bed."

"Lewd," Winter whispered.

"And there goes that option."

"How did you even hear that when I didn't?" Jaune asked.

"Weiss has amazing hearing," Winter answered. The car lurched forward with acceleration. "And gets angry if someone else answers questions aimed at her."

"Anyway," Jaune turned to Winter. "I'm surprised you know Weiss."

"Why? I talked about her when we met. Obviously I knew her."

"Right. I guess I should have known." He sat back into his seat.

That was when Ruby remembered something important.

"Guys, do you want to make a huge training party tomorrow? Lots of people, lots of mayhem and hopefully all of us will learn something. Just for a couple of hours, we could shoot stuff, compare techniques and just hang out."

"Are you trying to scope out the opposition again?" Emerald asked playfully.

"What if I am?" Ruby answered.

"Then I'm in," Emerald said. "You guys?"

"Nah," Mercury said. He had his feet up on the seats, but since Weiss didn't comment on it, Ruby didn't want to say anything.

"Nah times two," Cinder said. "We have our own preparations to make. Besides, I doubt I'd be of much help."

"I've seen you use swords," Ruby said. "You could teach Blake some stuff."

"I'm a horrible teacher. Besides," she turned to Blake, "I'm sure your form is already quite perfect."

"Not even close," Blake admitted.

"It really can't be as bad as mine." Cinder said. "And I'm sure miss Nikos could teach you a lot more."

Winter cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "I would love to participate and I hope you'll be able to learn a lot from me. If you have trouble with something, don't hesitate to ask."

"Are you joking or what?" Yang asked.

"No, I'm serious. I have, like, a thousand ice skills I could teach you."

"Winter," Weiss said from the front. "No one here uses ice, except for me on rare occasions, and even if they did, all of your skills are useless in combat."

"Are not."

"Name three that aren't."

"I only need one. Dragon."

"Completely useless for anything other than scaring off random people. Try again."

Winter opened her mouth and then quickly put her hands over it. "You haven't seen any of my new abilities," she said when she composed herself. "Revealing them now would be underwhelming."

The car lurched forward again. "Stop speaking as if you have anything to reveal. And shut up and let JNPR answer, okay?"

Winter made the motion of zipping her mouth shut and eating the key. Ruby turned to Jaune.

"Sure," he said. "We don't have anything better to do and honestly this morning felt like a complete waste of time."

The rest of his team didn't seem to have anything against it, so Ruby added them to her mental list. Now all she had to do was call CFVY and they would have more than enough people.

* * *

 **AN:**

You might be wondering who that girl was and why I'm trying to make you believe it's Winter. To that I will answer that she isn't. To expand upon that, she isn't the canon version of Winter Schnee, but practically an OC that shares the name and familial ties of the Winter Schnee from the show. I have a lot of reasons and excuses for it, but ultimately, it is because the fanfic wouldn't have worked otherwise.


	20. Chapter 22,5 - Game night

"We still have time before bedtime," Ruby said after a short silence. "How about we play a game when we get to Beacon?"

"What game?" Blake asked. She sounded a little irritated.

"Poker," Ruby said.

"I love that game. We used to play it all the time," Winter exclaimed.

"Oh, are we playing for money or strip poker?" Yang asked immediately.

"I was thinking we'd play for fun."

"So strip?"

"No."

"I feel like our definitions of fun are a little different."

"Let me put it this way. Do you want to play strip poker with your little sister?"

"Does anyone want to play anything anyway?" Weiss said. "It may not be all that late, but I'm sure most of us are tired."

Ruby looked around the car.

"We'll pass," Cinder said. A sense of relief washed over Ruby. The whole laying with the wolf in sheep's clothing thing was really starting to stress her out.

"Maybe," Jaune said. "If we're not playing for money."

"Obviously I'm in," Winter said with a strange glint in her eye.

"Might as well." Pyrrha said. Her cheeks were unusually flushed.

Nora just nodded enthusiastically and since she was playing there was no need to ask Ren.

"More than enough people," Ruby said to Weiss.

"Fine then."

They arrived at the school and Cinder and her team went their own way. Everyone else piled into JNPR's dorm, since it was the one with more free space.

"Who's the new girl anyway," Pyrrha asked.

Weiss realized that she never introduced Winter to JNPR.

Winter took care of it herself.

"I suppose a formal introduction is in order. My name is Winter W. Schnee. The W stands for "Motherfucking" which is what I'm going to do to all of you once I'm done wiping the floor here."

She then set off three shots of confetti into the air.

Weiss was the first to recover. "Six out of ten. Devourer of worlds was better. Your Winter Ball introduction is still unsurpassed."

"Well of course the Winter Ball was better. It was named after me, you know." How self-absorbed can one person be? "Devourer of worlds was basically "Hello, I am Winter Schnee, the devourer of worlds.", though. How is that better?"

"Sometimes less is more. Sure this one was way more ridiculous, but it sort of broke the illusion of seriousness. Devourer of worlds was simple and elegant. It took people a second to realize what you said and that second made the shock much more intense."

"I thought this one was better," Winter insisted.

"I have no idea what's going on," Yang said to Ruby.

"I think that's true for everyone here," Ruby said. "Now, we should find a deck of cards and something we can use as chips."

"I have chips," Jaune said. "My sisters gave me a poker set as a present for getting accepted into Beacon. I doubt they thought I would use it."

"Jaune to the rescue," Nora said. "So, how do you play?"

"I believe you all know what she's doing, so I won't say it," Ren said.

"Pretending not to know the game in order to be able to bluff more effectively? I thought as much." Ruby said. It was the oldest trick in the book.

"I would never," Nora said.

"Yeah, sure," Jaune said and dug out the poker set. They divided up the chips and started playing.

Within the first three games, Ruby had a general idea who the most troublesome opponents were going to be. Weiss was obviously number one, since she was able to accurately guess when she was bluffing, but she seemed to be pretty new at the game, so Ruby wasn't too worried.

On the other hand, Winter's ability was apparent. She played with the confidence of an experienced player and could actually bluff out even Weiss.

Pyrrha and Blake were barely paying attention, so they weren't going to be a problem.

Yang was definitely more experienced than even Winter, so she had the potential to be an even more dangerous opponent. However, Ruby knew her too well. Of course that blade cut both ways.

Ren was very attentive and could potentially be either very good, or very bad.

Nora had the horrible habit of calling every single time. She was the first to run out of money.

Jaune didn't know he had a flush. He was going to be trivial to take care of. In fact, Ruby did so the very next hand.

Next, she targeted Pyrrha. She didn't seem to mind losing and went to bed in spite of the noise they were making.

Then Ruby wondered who her next target should be. Blake would probably be easiest, but she was a very cautious player and seemed to be getting pretty into it, so she went for Yang.

"You know, I don't think you have enough to beat me," she said to her after making a pretty significant raise.

"Why do you say that?" Yang asked. "I thought my bluff was flawless."

"You made one fatal mistake." Ruby said. "You failed to realize that your straight is easily beaten by a flush." She raised even more.

"God damn it," Yang said and folded. Everyone else followed.

Ruby quietly shuffled her high card hand back into the deck.

"How did you know?" Weiss asked.

"You can tell exactly what hand Yang has by the size of her pupils."

"That's not true at all!" Yang said.

"It might be," Weiss said. "I'll get back to you on that."

The next few hands went badly for Yang. She probably didn't realize that her losing streak was based solely on her drop in confidence.

* * *

In the end, it was down to Weiss, Ruby and Winter.

They drew their cards. Ruby surveyed the room carefully. Each of their faces was carefully composed, except for one person. Winter. She was looking at her cards as if she couldn't even comprehend what she was seeing. She either had an amazing hand, or an amazingly bad hand. She looked up and met Ruby's eyes but looked away immediately. It was bad.

By then everyone had turned to look at Ruby. She made a bet just big enough that it would force Weiss to go all in and passed ahead waiting to see what Winter would do. Winter bit her lip as her turn approached.

"I have four of a kind," she said.

Weiss immediately threw her cards in the air and said, "This game is horrible."

"You know she's bluffing, right?" Ruby asked. "There's no way she has four of a kind."

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement. Weiss just shook her head.

"You have no idea how stupidly lucky she can get."

"What, you don't believe me?" Winter said in a teasing voice. "Here, maybe this will convince you." She picked up a fistful of chips and threw them in the pot.

Ruby looked at her very carefully. "Are you trying to use a double bluff on me," she asked.

"What's that?" Winter said innocently. Almost as if she was playing dumb.

"It's bluffing about bluffing. You make the players think you want them to think you're bluffing in order to get them to keep playing when you have a better hand."

"Maybe I am," she said. "Why not find out?"

Instead of raising to see if she was actually bluffing, Ruby called. Winter could easily have three of a kind that would beat her current two pairs.

"I'll take one card," Ruby said.

"I guess I could as well," Winter said. Why would she only exchange one card? She couldn't actually have what she said, could she?

Ruby took her card and fought to conceal her reaction. It was the jack that would turn her hand into a full house. Winter, on the other hand, quietly picked her card up and placed it in the second-to-last position in her hand.

She didn't get what she wanted. Ruby wasted no time and went all in.

"Are you sure you want to do that," Winter asked very seriously. "If you're wrong about me bluffing you'll lose."

"But if I'm right, I'll win a lot." Ruby thought her chances were very good. She was almost certain Winter had nothing of value.

"Okay then," Winter said and paid the bet. "What could you possibly have that made you so confident? You already know my hand, so you can go first."

Ruby showed her hand. It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty good and probably enough to win.

"Well," Winter said. "Let's see who wins." She put one of the cards in her hand on the table, face up. "One queen." She put down another. "Two queens." And another. "Three queens." She paused, as if to keep the people watching in suspense.

She picked a card from her hand. "This unfortunately, isn't a queen," she said and lay down a knight. "But this is," she threw her final card through the air until it landed right in front of Ruby.

It was, indeed, a queen.

The room exploded in cheers. Ruby also cheered. Winter certainly had her showmanship down to an art.

Weiss raised her hand for silence and said exactly what everyone expected her to.

"I told you so."

"No, you didn't. She drew the last one," Ruby said over their friends' laughter.

"Then why would she only exchange one card? Doesn't it make her chances worse?"

"Not really," Winter said. "If I only had three of a kind, I would have had the chance to draw a pair for my one remaining card and to complete the set. I would have been happy with a full house, so drawing one would have played into my bluff, if I had been bluffing."

"Did you have four queens at the beginning," Weiss asked.

"Yes. I said I did, didn't I?"

Weiss turned to Ruby.

"You don't have to say it."

"I told you so."


	21. Chapter 23 - Insight in training

Fourteen people? Not nearly enough. The time wasn't going to be enough either. Ruby told them it would be a couple of hours, but the amount of things she had to do was astonishing.

"Okay then, everyone gather 'round," she called. Teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY, as well as Emerald and Winter turned to look at her. "So, I have something I'd like to go over with my team. Are all of you okay with just doing your own thing for now and we'll have a free-for-all later?"

"That's fine," Coco said. "I also have a thing, so that actually suits me perfectly."

"I don't have anything like that, but we can goof around until you guys are done," Jaune said. He noticed Emerald and Winter didn't have a team with them, so he invited them over.

What Winter hoped to accomplish by being here Ruby couldn't even begin to imagine.

She didn't particularly care either.

"Got this today," she said to Blake, handing her a long sword in a sheathe. "This would be the best time to get used to it."

"Thanks," Blake said and took the sword out. Ruby realized that it wasn't painted, but forged into a black color. He really went all out, didn't he? Well, for the price they paid, he'd better have.

"Today we'll be practicing nonlethal techniques," she announced to her team.

"Why?" Weiss was the first to ask.

"Because lately we've been fighting humans a lot and humans are more useful if you catch them alive."

"Good point," Blake said. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"Of course. What, did you think I slept last night or something? For you I think a toned-down, duller version of your aura blades would be pretty incredible. Yang, you should try not aiming for any vital spots. Weiss, you'll probably be reduced to a fully support role, since your specialty is execution techniques and we'd definitely need the help because not fighting to kill puts us at a disadvantage. As for me, I'm already pretty much perfect at it, so I'll be a coach of sorts."

"Why did you try way harder to convince Weiss than the rest of us?" Yang asked. Of course she would.

"Because she's been trying to take a more active fighting role lately and I feel bad for putting her in the back again."

"I don't mind," Weiss said. "It is where I am the most useful."

"I expected you to say 'tis again," Yang said.

"I know. That's why I didn't. You have to think further ahead than that if you want to read my mind."

"Oh please, like you can read me," they both said at the exact same time.

"Will you two get a room already?" Emerald said. She was watching them. Probably learning their moves on Cinder's command. Good thing they weren't going to be using the real deal.

Yang seemed confused as to whether she should be angry or amused.

"She's right you guys, everyone's waiting for us," Ruby decided to intervene before things escalated.

"Okay," Yang shrugged.

"Very interesting," Weiss said.

Ruby probably should have ignored that, but she decided to bite. "What is?"

"You taking her side. I didn't expect that. It wasn't the logical thing to do. Why did you do it?"

Really, was Weiss actually hiding a mind-reading semblance or something? "Because we should get started and I was looking for a way to bring it up."

"That doesn't explain why you said "she's right". I think our banter adds a lot to this team and thought you would agree with me."

"Why are you guys making such a big deal out of this?" Blake asked. It was a very valid question.

"Because I don't like it. Ruby is being influenced against us, for some reason."

Ruby wanted to tell Weiss that she was being paranoid, but, well, she was exactly right. Luckily, she didn't need to.

"Weiss, you're reading way too much into the situation." Yang said. "I'm sure Emerald meant it as a joke and Ruby wanted to use it to get us to take things more seriously."

"Holy shit you guys, I was trying to break the ice and stuff. I didn't mean to, like, insult you or make you fight or something." She probably did.

"Yeah," Yang said. "Sorry about that."

"I don't like you," Weiss said.

"Weiss!"

"What? I'm entitled to my opinion."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go over to those guys over there," Emerald said and went over to Jaune's group. It was probably for the better.

"Why did you look relieved there?" Weiss asked.

"No. We're not doing this again. Training. Seriously. Now. We're starting. You have ten seconds before you get the dull side of a scythe on the back of your neck."

* * *

Jaune wondered what to do. He really hated being put on the spot like this, but he was the only team leader not currently otherwise occupied, so it was his responsibility to come up with an activity for them to do.

Winter went up to him. "Can I see that?" she asked and pointed at his sword.

"Sure," Jaune said and pulled it out.

She held the sword with her palm against the flat of the blade.

"Jaune, dude, mate, bro, friend, dude, dude, this thing is a piece of art." She said. She swung it around and, apparently satisfied, returned it.

"Thanks," Jaune said. He looked over his sword. What did Winter find so great about it.

"Really. It's short, light, perfectly balanced and, on top of it all, comes with a shield."

"Ruby's weapon comes with a sniper rifle."

"Yeah, I wouldn't try to block with a rifle. Shields are awesome. Now, let's spar."

"Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm actually a top-tier boxer, you know. You won't hit me once."

"Are we starting?" Jaune asked. She didn't look ready at all.

"Yep." She said and tried to punch him. He sidestepped and hit her lightly.

"The hell was that?" she asked. "Fight seriously. Or I will."

She was probably grandstanding. That is, she was obviously grandstanding. Jaune took a step forward to punch her lightly in the chest. She blocked the punch and hit him with enough strength to force him back.

"Jaune, are you seriously losing against my idiot sister?" Jaune heard Weiss ask from across the field.

"Your "idiot sister" hits like a truck." he answered.

"Yeah. It's called retard strength. Try using your head."

That wasn't going to be enough. Jaune quickly realized Winter was nowhere near as helpless as she appeared. He was going to need to use the things Pyrrha thought him.

Much more cautiously, he attacked her. She blocked his right fist, then his left and counterattacked, leaving a small opening which Jaune took full advantage of and stepped into her punch, at the same time delivering a solid one of his own to her body.

Winter took a step back and Jaune pressed the advantage.

He got another punch in and then another. Winter was pretty much walking backwards in order to avoid him.

"Cutting in," he heard from his left and was barely able to dodge Pyrrha's punch.

Well, that was certainly a change of pace. With Pyrrha on Winter's side, he was at a massive disadvantage.

"I'm in too," Nora said and went up to face Pyrrha.

And suddenly, it wasn't a friendly boxing match anymore.

Pyrrha got out of the way of Nora's punch and delivered a series of blows to her body. Nora retaliated swiftly.

This was going to take forever, so Jaune called for them to stop.

"Let's form two more balanced teams using everyone if we're going to do something like that," he said.

"So, everyone against Nora?" Emerald asked.

"You'd be surprised," Jaune said. "Obviously we can't let her and Ren on the same team, but I think me and Winter might be good." For once he wasn't going to be the biggest handicap. He could probably take Ren if he needed to and Winter might be good at distracting Emerald for a while.

Then again, he had no idea how Emerald fought at all. She could be stronger than all of them combined.

"Weapons?" Ren asked.

"Dunno," Jaune said, looking at Winter. She didn't seem to have one.

"I'm fine." Winter said.

"Okay then. Weapons free, I guess." He took his sword and shield out and everyone else armed up as well. Then they took their places on the two opposing teams and waited for Jaune to say the word.

"Go."

What followed was absolute chaos. Between Winter yelling "Winter Dragon" and suddenly being surrounded by a growing mass of ice and Nora recklessly charging into the enemy, he wasn't exactly sure what he should do.

The good thing was that their opponents were just as baffled as him. He decided on charging and was soon followed by Winter's now massive form stumbling along.

It looked like Pyrrha had managed to get past Nora and was going for Winter, so Jaune decided it would be best if he could hold her here.

Sure, he hadn't won once against her, but he could actually fight her at least for a little bit now. Hopefully enough for Nora to come to his aid.

Then he saw that Emerald was also coming.

Luckily, a clawed paw descended from above and got her attention. Emerald cut it off and then climbed onto the dragon. Winter wasn't going to last long.

Jaune focused on Pyrrha. He already knew every single one of her moves and could tell when she was about to use them, so it was only a matter of his body keeping up with hers for him to match her.

Of course, Pyrrha was still very much superior and he quickly found himself unable to penetrate her defenses, while at the same time taking multiple hits.

At least she was being somewhat serious this time. Maybe she was angry about yesterday.

Or maybe she was showing him she acknowledged his progress.

Pyrrha executed a series of stabbing attacks, all of which Jaune stopped, but it was too late when he realized that was exactly what she wanted. Every hit put him slightly off-balance, so towards the end he needed a second to collect himself, which Pyrrha used to make a sweep that tore his shield away.

And that was it. Without a shield he didn't stand a shadow of a chance. Pyrrha stabbed the spear at him and he couldn't get out of the way in time.

Theirs was the last fight to finish. Winter was sitting on the ground with Emerald above her with no trace of the dragon she summoned. Nora was standing victorious over a defeated Ren.

"That was hardly balanced," Winter said. "It was the same result as last time."

"How was I supposed to do balance when I had no idea you could do something like that?"

"Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point."

"She wasn't considerably stronger with it than before, so who cares," Emerald said. "Anyway, it will be somewhat balanced if me and her change teams."

"Let's try that then," Jaune said. This was going to get boring pretty quickly if Ruby didn't come back soon enough.

* * *

"This'll have to do," Ruby said. "Let's go join everyone else." She waved Coco over as well.

Jaune's group already seemed to be getting bored, so she got their attention as well.

"Here's what we're going to do." She said as soon as everyone was together. "Free for all. Get hit once and you're out."

"That sounds like it's in someone's favor a lot," Nora said.

"That's always going to be the case, though," Ruby said. Then she realized something. By doing this she was going to reveal Velvet's power to Emerald and by extension, Cinder.

"I feel a little bad that I'll reveal how strong you are to everyone," she said to Velvet.

"Don't. It's not like I need the element of surprise or anything. Speaking of, should we use a handicap?"

"Probably," Coco said. "No semblance, no weapons."

"You don't need to..."

"Yeah, they do," Weiss cut Jaune off. "Trust me."

"We'll see about that," Pyrrha said. It was almost cute how she thought she stood a chance.

"Go." Ruby said.

Pyrrha went straight for Coco, who she must have thought was the strongest one and that left Velvet free to dispose of the rest of them.

It was almost mesmerizing, seeing her move with such grace. She punched Jaune and Nora out of the way simultaneously, dodged Weiss' massive area attack that got nearly everyone else and punched her as well.

Ruby managed to make it out in time and saw her chance. She gathered her strength and rushed at Velvet, only to land on her outstretched fist.

By then Coco was done with Pyrrha, so she took out a gun and shot at Velvet.

Velvet somehow managed to get out of the way fast enough and quickly took out Coco as well.

"You weren't supposed to use guns," Weiss said.

"That was my command to the team. It didn't include me." Coco said.

"How did you do that jump?" Blake asked Velvet. "The one that got you out of Weiss' range."

"Aura. I shot it into the ground in order to propel myself away. I suppose I could have been more creative about it, but that's what came to me first."

"Are you kidding me? That's genius. We need to have another duel."

"Room for one more?" Weiss asked. "I have a few other things I'd like to test out on you."

"Sure," Velvet said. "Better to know about them now than during our fight."

"You're pretty confident that's going to happen," Coco said.

"Well you're certainly not going to beat either of us," Weiss said.

Coco frowned. "I'm not stupid enough to rise to your provocations. You just want to see more of me fighting so that you can make a better plan for when I'm going to destroy you."

"I actually agree with her," Velvet said. "In this fight, you took out one, I took out four and she took out the other ten. Also, your defense is horrible."

"A good offence is the best defense."

"There are very few cases in which that's actually true."

"We're supposed to be training, not talking all day," Ruby reminded them. Then she thought of something. "By the way, Pyrrha, would you mind going with them? I want Blake to learn some proper form from you and I think that out of all of us you might be the one person who has a chance of touching Velvet, so it should be fun for you too."

"Sure," Pyrrha said. "It really should be fun."

Was she being sarcastic? Never mind.

Weiss, Pyrrha, Velvet and Blake went to a different corner of the field.

"Proper form, was it?" Velvet said. "I could do something about that."

"You're going to show your weapon?" Blake asked.

"No. It's not something I like showing." She made an unpleasant face. "This much should be fine though."

She held both of her hands out next to each other and then moved the left away. A handle appeared out of her clenched fist. She grabbed the handle and pulled a long sword, similar to Blake's, out of her other hand. It was like a magic trick.

"Impressive," Weiss said. "You'll be glad to know I have no idea how it works."

"Saint of swords evolution," Velvet said as if it explained everything.

"Evolution, huh?" Pyrrha said, looking at the sword.

"What's an evolution?" Blake asked.

"You aren't supposed to know," Velvet said. She gripped the sword tightly and stepped more firmly into the ground, her legs forming a wide arc. "At least that's what our teachers would tell you. I won't go against what they say."

"I didn't hear them say anything," Weiss said. "Pyrrha, do you know?"

"Yes." That was helpful.

"Great. Let's fight then."

Blake focused on Watching Velvet's movements. The thing she noticed the most was her footwork. It was... fluid.

Her movements felt strangely predatory. Something she didn't expect of an herbivore faunus.

She also seemed to be slowing down so that Blake could examine her technique properly. Whenever Pyrrha jumped in, her movements sped up considerably and she grabbed her sword with both hands.

"Why do you do that? Use both hands?" Blake asked.

"More power," Velvet answered while bending back to dodge a shard of ice Weiss launched. "Two hands are stronger than one. You might also want to do a few practice swings in order to get more used to your weapon. A thousand a day is a good start."

A thousand? That would take hours. Was that the secret to Velvet's overwhelming power?

"She has a point," Pyrrha said. "Just simple up-to-down slashes can do wonders when you're starting out."

Pyrrha too? This was getting ridiculous.

"Please don't tell me you did those too?" she said to Weiss.

"I mainly did wrist stuff," Weiss said.

Of course she did.

* * *

"With the four of them out of the way, we'll have a somewhat better fight." Ruby said as she watched the group leave.

It was a little better. Everyone ganged up on Coco and then it was a free-for-all. Ruby survived to the end, but just as she was about to declare her victory Emerald appeared from behind and quickly tapped her on the shoulder.

"I'm going to teach you something," Coco said to Ruby after the end of the next round.

"What?"

"You'll see. Let's leave the others to fight amongst themselves. It would be more fun for them like that."

"I'll come too," Fox said. "I'm getting bored of being shot in the beginning because I can't use my semblance anyway." He turned to Yatsuhashi. "You staying?"

Yatsuhashi nodded. He was not a very talkative person, was he?

"I want to see this," Emerald said. More espionage. Maybe Ruby shouldn't have invited her.

"It's not going to be some amazing ability or attack or anything, but if you still want to then that's fine," Coco said.

"I'll come along anyway," she said. She was probably bored of the fighting.

They went far enough that they wouldn't get caught up in the others' fighting and Coco started her lesson.

"What I've noticed about you is that you don't look at your surroundings enough. You focus on your target and it's the only thing you see. It makes you extremely vulnerable."

"Yep, agreed," Emerald said. "You are also very easily distracted. All over the place, really. I guess that's why you focus so much in fights."

"That makes sense," Coco said. "Good observation."

"Thanks."

Ruby didn't count out the fact that Emerald could intentionally be misleading them. With that in mind, she said, "I don't know about being easily distracted, but I can certainly tell that I'm way better at fighting a single opponent. Or at least I'm good at tracking whoever I'm fighting. I'm good against many as well, but there has been the occasional time I almost got hit in the back."

"You're certainly good, but that's not what we're talking about. You have a very exploitable weakness you should work on. Of course it won't be a problem against Grimm, but it will be one in the tournament. Maybe you notice other things, but you lose precious seconds of reaction time."

"You probably haven't noticed it yet because of your ridiculously short reaction time, but once you start fighting people whose reactions are similarly fast, you'll get slaughtered. Look at our fight for reference." Emerald added.

Ruby seriously started to consider the implications of letting Emerald train with them. She was a little too good at figuring out other people's weaknesses.

"Do you have any similar insight about the other members of my team?" she asked.

"Changing the subject?" Coco asked.

"I just thought it was more important than continuing with me." She said. It was technically true. She wanted to know what Emerald figured out about them as well.

"Weiss' stamina is laughable, Yang relies too much on taking hits and Blake, while the best-rounded fighter among you, lacks enough power to become outstanding."

"That's a very good way of putting it," Coco said. "With enough training, Weiss could become a very fearsome fighter and I think that's one of the reasons she's so obsessed with Velvet. She sees her potential future in her."

"I wouldn't call her obsessed," Ruby said.

"She took out ten other people in an attempt to hit her."

"She's the biggest threat. If Blake didn't drag her off, the next round would have probably started with everyone ganging up on her."

"Maybe obsessed was the wrong word," Coco said. "She does show an interest in her, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, but so do I. Someone that powerful is just interesting."

"Not really. She's just incredibly strung out all the time. Other than that, she's as normal as they come."

"What does that even mean?"

"Well, she's never idle. Always moving around, always doing something. And she's always tossing and turning when she sleeps. Too much energy in that girl. Or it could be the bunny thing. Not really sure."

"It might be. They hide their non-human characteristics very well, but you should see the inside of a catgirl's mouth."

"Speaking of, Blake's weaknesses are very easily remedied. She just has to find a good teacher and train with them until her arms and legs feel like they're going to fall off. Every day." Did Emerald seriously just blow Blake's cover? Ruby looked to Coco and Fox quickly, but they didn't look surprised at all.

"That sounds about right," Coco confirmed.

"How did you guys know?" Ruby asked.

"The fact that her bow moves around is pretty suspicious," Coco said. "If that's what you were talking about."

"I attributed that to the wind," Ruby said. It actually was pretty obvious.

"People see what they want to see," Fox said.

"What about Yang?" Ruby asked. "I don't see an easy way for her to not rely on getting hit to power up."

"That is a little more complicated. It's not as big as a drawback as the rest of you, so she should overcome it with time," Coco said. "Maybe."

That didn't inspire a lot of confidence.

"Anyway, we should work on you first. I think our best bet would be all of us attacking you at once and you trying to get away."

Ruby had doubts if that was going to do anything, but she did have a little time to kill and she did trust Coco. "Fine, let's try it," she said.

* * *

Jaune saw that there was someone waiting just outside their training area. Someone he definitely did not expect to see anytime soon.

He excused himself and went over to her.

"Jaqueline?"

"They said I'd find you here," she said.

"What are you doing in Vale?"

"What, you're not happy to see me?"

"Of course I am, but aren't you supposed to be at the battlefront?"

"Nah. Everyone's busy rebuilding and I'd just get in their way."

"Rebuilding? Why?"

"Well, we kinda got obliterated a few days after that Grimm attack in Vale. Apparently that's when the misery from it reached the Grimm outside."

"Is everyone okay?"

"Like half my people died. Could have been a lot worse."

That news and how Jaqueline delivered them so casually chilled Jaune to the bone. "What about the Grimm?"

"Broke through. Second line bombed the shit out of them. That was actually the first time I saw a Goliath get hit by a mortar. Those things are insane."

"The mortars or the Goliath?"

"Goliaths. Those things can take a beating. Shrugged off mortars like they were nothing."

"So how did you defeat them?"

"Hunters stepped in. Entire teams had to take them down one by one. Like I said, absolutely insane. I hear we might invest in some heavy artillery at the second line just because they couldn't handle it without help. Now that I think about it, you're going to be doing stuff like that in the future, huh?"

That reminded Jaune of his own role in the battle. Suddenly, he didn't feel like he had been hunting big Grimm at all. "I guess so," he said.

"By the way," Jaqueline smiled. "I heard you did good out there."

"I got a medal of bravery," Jaune said. It was the only thing he could think of saying.

Jaqueline wrapped her arm around him and squeezed tightly. "That's my little bro for you. I knew you had it in you."

"Yeah. Somehow it doesn't feel like much compared to what you went through."

That was a stupid thing to say. He could tell that even Jaqueline thought that, but truthfully, it was how he felt.

"We all have our parts to play." She said. "We take care of the Grimm on the outside and you deal with the ones that have a chance of making it inside. Or that did make it inside."

She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "One day, you'll become incredibly strong. Stronger than an army or two. You have no idea how proud of you I am. How proud of you we all are."

That didn't feel good at all. If anything, it made him feel even worse.

Ren came up to them.

"Captain Arc, nice to see you. It seems I was correct in assuming you would know my team leader."

"Small world," Jaqueline said. "Has my little brother been treating you right?"

"He has."

"Good. And it's Major now, by the way. Promotion just went through. I feel like shit for celebrating that a bunch of people died for me to get it, but it is a cause for celebration."

"Congratulations on your promotion. Now, if you'll excuse me." He went back to Nora and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened visibly and she continued staring at Jaqueline. Where could they have met? He could always ask later.

"Is this why you're really here? The promotion?" Jaune asked, looking away from his teammates.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll stay long enough to see you fight. We have to round up new recruits and apparently Pipsqueak can't be bothered with such menial tasks."

"Did Julie get a promotion as well?"

Jaqueline's face suddenly became very serious. "Yeah. On the field no less. It's gotta suck, seeing your superior officer die in front of you. If something like that happened to me..."

"She is your sister after all. I'm sure it can't be that bad for her."

"I'm a little jealous that you can think like that. Out there on the front lines, we're all one big family. The former colonel was like a father to her."

Jaune didn't know how to deal with that. He always avoided talking to his sisters about their job, but he was sort of in a similar position now, except not at all.

"Should I call her? See how she's doing?"

"I think she would appreciate it. As long as you don't talk about what I just told you."

That was understandable. He wouldn't want to talk about it if something like that happened to him either.

* * *

They were about to wrap up when Ruby remembered an idea she had. Best of all, she had just the person she needed right next to her.

"Winter, you're Weiss' contact with the company, right?" she asked.

"Yep. Why?"

"I've been wondering, does the Schnee Dust Company have some sort of technology that can allow people to communicate short-range without the need for any sort of outside signal. I feel like a lot of the mishaps we get into during combat could be avoided if we had something to facilitate communication between us."

"Sure. We use radio transceivers in the mines. They sound exactly like what you're looking for."

It couldn't possibly be that easy. "Won't interference be a problem?"

"Like I said, we use them in the mines. Down there barely any electronics work. You just have to find the right frequency."

Perfect. "How soon can you get me some?"

"I could ask someone to send them, but it would be a massive headache. If I'm there to take them out it's one thing, but asking someone else to do it is dangerous."

"Why?"

"Because I'm asking them to steal company equipment. So, yeah, soonest I can do it is when I get back."

"How much trouble could you get into?"

"Not a lot, but I would rather avoid it."

Obviously Ruby couldn't ask her to do it. "I guess I don't need them immediately," she said.

"Yeah, what with the tournament and stuff I doubt you would get in enough trouble to need them."

Except for the fact that Ruby was planning on "getting in trouble" tonight, she had a point. "I guess. Thanks."

Winter twirled a lock of hair thoughtfully. "You could make some. I might be able to get a hold of some schematics. The devices themselves aren't all that complex and I think you might be able to make one with spare parts for scrolls. Or modify a scroll to function as one."

"And use a headset linked to the scroll? That's genius."

Winter smiled. "Flattery gets you everywhere with me. I'll try to dig something up as soon as we get back to the room. By the way, you do have a welding kit, right?"

"Of course I do," Ruby said. "I have two, actually. I use them for maintenance and modification of my darling Crescent Rose."

"Two of them means we can both work on it. We'll also need some resistors, I think, and we should be good."

Ruby realized she may be slightly in over her head. "Have you done this before?"

"Yes. My scroll works like that."

She should have started with that.

They went back to the room and after a few minutes on her scroll, Winter pulled up a schematic.

A really big schematic.

"Don't worry, your scroll already has most of that stuff. This is what we need to add." She pointed at a small part of it. "All we need to do is assemble the chips and solder them on. Then we install the software and we're good."

Winter was actually getting pretty excited while Ruby was very nervous they were going to brick her scroll.

"Why is there even software for this?"

"Because it's simpler to modify already existing scrolls than to make new devices. You do know that the company made, like, a billion scrolls and is still looking for places to sell the stock they have left, right?"

"No."

"Well they did." She looked around. "We're going to need to sacrifice a scroll to get the resistors."

"Jaune broke his in the battle," Ruby remembered. "But I don't think he still has it."

Winter went over to Weiss' bunk and after a minute of searching pulled out another scroll.

"That's not hers, is it?" Ruby asked. It was a cheaper model than Weiss'.

"Oh, it's hers alright." Winter said and entered the correct password on the first try. "Let's look at her search history." She then made a face. "On second thought, let's not."

Okay, that was interesting. "What did you see?"

"You don't want to know. Let's just take it apart." She pulled the back cover off without hesitation.

Weiss was going to kill them.

"Can I get a knife?" Winter asked.

Ruby handed one to her.

After a few minutes, what was previously a perfectly good scroll, with what was probably some very disturbing pornography on it, was turned into a pile or components.

Weiss might actually kill them.

"Solder," Winter said.

Ruby handed it to her.

Winter carefully soldered a few parts together and then asked for Ruby's scroll, which Ruby gave to her.

"Done," Winter said after soldering her creation somewhere on the back. She booted up the scroll, did something with it and then took her own scroll.

"Test," she said into hers and the sound came out of Ruby's.

"How did you learn to do stuff like this," Ruby asked.

"By having too much free time. Now, could you gather your team's scrolls so that we can do them as well?"

"Sure," Ruby said.

That went a lot better than expected.

* * *

"I'm actually thinking I'll go hit the gym before we go," Jaune said. "I'll catch up with you guys in a couple of hours."

"What's this all of a sudden?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well, I was thinking that I've hit a point where I could actually benefit from getting physically stronger," he said.

"That might be true, but I can think of better things to spend your time on than mindlessly lifting weights at the gym. Your balance and speed still need work, not to mention your stamina."

"I believe we could all help you out," Ren said. "Your training with Pyrrha seems to only focus on your reflexes and strategy. I could teach you balance, speed and agility, while Nora could help you with strength and endurance. If you want to, of course."

Is this what you call an offer you can't refuse? "That sounds great," Jaune said. "As long as I'm not being too much of a bother to all of you."

"You aren't." Ren said. That was the first time Jaune saw him speak for Nora, instead of it being the other way around. "With what we'll be facing in the tournament, you'll need it."

"What did you see?" Nora asked.

"Not sure, but Velvet is scary. So is Emerald."

"The others?"

"Coco's weapons are like parts of her. Fox seems to be connected to the area around him and Yatsuhashi is strong, but doesn't seem to have any powers worth noting."

"Velvet?" Pyrrha asked. "She pulled a sword out of thin air."

"I don't know. She's very cautious. But she does feel wrong. Incomplete maybe. Her aura looks... torn up or something."

"If she's that strong while incomplete..." Pyrrha said. She didn't need to finish. "What about Emerald?"

"I couldn't see anything about her."

"Is that even possible?"

"I don't know. That's why I said she's scary."

So she was going to be another troublesome opponent? Well, there was going to be no shortage of those.

"Let's go hit the gym real quick," Nora said and pulled Jaune by the sleeve. They trained for about an hour and Jaune excused himself afterwards so that he could make a call.

"Make it quick, I got things to eat, people to do." was Julie's greeting.

"That makes no sense whatsoever," Jaune said. "Do you eat people?"

"We run short on food sometimes," she said. "What's up?"

"Wait, you cannot just change the subject at that!"

"It's a joke. You're the first one to go along with it, which made me realize how unfunny it is. Now, I actually am busy, so what's up?"

"I just wanted to hear from my little sister," Jaune said. "I can call you back if now's not a good time."

"There's never a good time," she said. "I'm fine. How are you?"

"Fine. Doing better in school. Did okay in the battle. How are things on your end?"

"Absolutely perfect. We got decimated and are incredibly understaffed right now. Even I have to help out. Jaune, I love you, but please don't waste my time."

"I just wanted to see if you're okay after what happened."

"Of course I'm fine. You know me. Wait, did Jaqueline put you up to this? I could have her court-marshalled."

If Jaune had a penny for every time he heard that, he would be a rich man. "She only told me what happened. I chose to call you."

"That's not the point. She wasn't supposed to tell you."

"When was the last time that stopped her from doing anything?"

"Fine then. If you must know, I'm fine. Really. I've learned to deal with stuff like this. He wasn't the first SO I've lost."

"Isn't that worse?"

"How would it be worse? I'm more efficient if I don't mourn every other death. By dealing with death quickly, I prevent more people from dying. Every second I spent moping around is a second my cute little subordinates could be dying."

"I hate that. You shouldn't have to go through something like that."

"I knew what I was getting into when I signed up. Sounds like you didn't."

And just like that, Jaune had no arguments left. He knew that if it came to saving one of his team, he would sacrifice his grief in a second. He would sacrifice a lot more. "I do now," he said.

"Are we done here?"

They were done. "I hate how every other conversation I have now feels like a confrontation."

That gave Julie pause. "Sorry. I've been a little on edge lately and I I'm not getting nearly enough sleep. Not your fault."

"Doesn't that lower your efficiency?"

"I take pills for that. It just makes me irritable. Goodbye now. If you tell mom anything, I will kill you."

She cut the feed. If only Jaune got a penny every time he heard that last part.

* * *

Later Cinder approached Ruby and Weiss in a hallway. "Hey, can we get a ride?" she asked.

"No," Weiss said.

"Okay then," Cinder said and went away.

"Weiss!"

"My car, my rules. You can't convince me otherwise."

"Why?"

"Because something's going on. And they're right in the middle of it."

"How do you know?"

"I just do. Call if instinct if you will, or subconscious deduction if you want to sound fancy, but there's something there. I know it's probably just me being paranoid, but be careful, okay?"

"I don't get it. What reason could you possibly have for suspecting them?"

"Everything they do? Do you really not see it? Every single move they make is carefully calculated, perfect in every way, like people following a script."

Ruby wondered if she would have noticed something like that if she didn't know what she did. Probably not.

"I don't get it," she said.

"It's like... their motives are uncertain. Their actions aren't driven by anything that I can figure out and that's freaking me out. A lot."

"Still don't get it. What actions are you talking about in particular?"

That actually made her stop and think. "Talking to you yesterday. Nothing about that makes sense and neither does your explanation afterwards. It felt like you were dodging the question. Why?"

So that was it. "Because it's none of your business," Ruby said. She was finally starting to figure out a way to deal with the situation. "How does that make you feel? Jealous? Does me and Yang making new friends feel that threatening to you?"

Weiss opened her mouth to argue and then closed it. Then she opened it again. "I won't deny that possibility. You may actually be right when I think about it, but that doesn't make things any different. We're a team and each of us has to rely on the others. You can't sacrifice your relationships with your teammates for those with other people."

"So I should always take your side, no matter if you're right or not?"

"You can start with when we're right. You taking Emerald's side at our expense was illogical."

"Why are you this hung up over a joke?"

"It's not just a joke. She was insinuating things that aren't true. I could sue her for that."

"Really?"

"I could."

"Would you, though?"

"Of course not."

And just like that, the picture was clear. "I'll alter the question a little. Why are you so offended by someone insinuating that you and Yang would make a good couple?"

"That's not what she said."

"It is, though."

"Shut up!"

"Good argument."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Ruby had almost forgotten how spoiled Weiss used to act. Going back to that was a little refreshing. She couldn't hide her grin anymore.

"I bet you wouldn't say that if it was Yang in front of you."

"I hate you."

"And you love Yang, apparently."

"Seriously, shut up. I'll hit you." Finally, Ruby was getting her revenge for everything Weiss ever did to her. It was almost poetic.

"But what you really want to do is hit on Yang."

"Right now I really want to hit you." Her pupils were getting smaller. A sign of anger.

"Yeah, but Yang could see it and she'd hate you for hitting me."

"Let's test that." She was really going to do it. Ruby realized that it was time to disappear.

"RUBY ROSE, GET BACK HERE RIGHT THIS SECOND AND LET ME PUNCH YOU!" were the words that followed her.

That was the first time Ruby Rose won a verbal confrontation with Weiss Schnee.

After a few minutes of chasing each other around, Ruby allowed Weiss to catch up with her. Weiss could barely breathe.

"If you tell anyone, I'll kill you. I'm not kidding. I will murder you in your sleep, hide the body and mourn your death."

"Nah, you won't."

"Fine, I'll be really nasty towards you forever."

"That's the way things already are."

"Do you not see the way I treat Winter?"

That was a little too much. "I'd better watch out then. Honestly, I had absolutely no intention of telling anyone about it. I'm actually surprised you want me to keep it a secret. I'm pretty sure I would handle telling Yang a lot better than you could."

That sent Weiss deep into thought. "Probably true, but I'm not going to tell her anything and neither will you. What I'm feeling is simple infatuation. I can deal with it."

"Now I want to tell her."

"I hate you."

Ruby was about to repeat what she said earlier in response to that, but reconsidered. She still had something she needed to do and it was getting late. "I have to go do something," she told Weiss. "See you in a bit."

She disappeared before Weiss could protest.

* * *

Yang was just about to go out when Ruby came in.

"Yang, I need your help," she said.

"What's wrong?" Yang quickly said. When Ruby actually asked for her help, things were always bad.

"I found out something I shouldn't know and I need a way to bring it up. It's important, but I can't say how I found out about it."

That was a very complicated way of saying almost nothing. "Well what is it? I can't help you if I don't know what you're talking about."

"I may or may not have found out that Roman is planning on attacking a bunch of faunus in the middle of the festival. I don't know why, I don't know where and I don't know exactly when, but I'm sure it will happen."

That was certainly something Yang did not expect. "How do you even come across that kind of information?"

"Can't say."

"Why not?"

"Because. Are you going to help me or not?"

"Hmm," Yang scratched her chin. Then she took out her scroll and made a few random motions on the screen. "Why, will you look at the message I got from Junior!" She said with obviously fake surprise. "It appears he heard a rumor that Roman is preparing for an attack on the festival. We have to stop him!" She put her scroll away.

"You are brilliant," Ruby beamed.

"Of course I am. Why else would you come to me for help?"

"Because you're the only person I know who I trust enough with this."

That was very sweet of her.

"Oh, and Weiss is in love with you, by the way." Ruby said.

"Wait, what?" But Ruby had already disappeared.


	22. Chapter 24 - Catch and release

"Are we sure that information you got is good?" Blake asked as they watched over the street where Roman was supposed to appear.

"I'm sure," Yang said. "Junior isn't stupid enough to lie to me."

"What if Roman decides it isn't worth it and doesn't come? Are we going to stay here all night?"

"If that's what it takes," Ruby said. "You guys know how important catching him is, right?"

"Yes. Interrogating him could get us some much needed answers." Blake said. "If we're going to stop him and the people behind him, we need to know why they did what they did."

"Terror," Weiss said. "Would be my guess."

"It didn't work out so well for them if that's the case," Ruby said. "Ozpin and Ironwood are doing everything in their power to hush it up and the White Fang are doing nothing. They haven't publically claimed responsibility for it. They haven't even done anything since then."

"A lot of them died back there. They could still be disorganized, or they could very well be going through a leadership change."

"Roman could very well not be on good terms with them anymore," Ruby said. "He sent a lot of them to their deaths for nothing."

"It wasn't for nothing in their eyes," Blake said. "It could be that they have no motive, that they just wanted to lash out against the establishment. I know of some that would have done it for that reason alone."

"That's a bad reason to die for," Yang said.

"Not if you have nothing else to live for." Weiss said.

No one had anything to say to that.

"Hopefully we'll get some answers out of Roman," Blake said.

"Yeah," Ruby agreed, but she had her doubts. If Cinder was willing to let him get captured, he didn't know anything that would be of danger to her.

"This is so exciting," Winter said. "Being on a stakeout with a bunch of huntresses like this is amazing. Is this what everyday life is like for you guys?"

"Winter, I would love to ditch you somewhere, but we don't need an ice dragon scaring Roman away because someone decided to grab your ass at the wrong time."

"When has that ever been a problem?" Winter said, outraged. "I'll have you know, I like it when people grab my ass. It's a compliment."

"You need psychiatric help," Weiss said. "Anyway, try to keep quiet and not get in the way. If Roman shows up, hide here until we're done with him."

"Yes sir!" Winter said and saluted.

To her credit, it was a decent salute.

"We should split up," Ruby said. "Cover more ground. We can keep in contact with the radios."

"Do these things even work?" Blake asked, looking at her earpiece.

"Put them on. All of you." Ruby said. Then she activated her own. "Test."

"It works," Yang said.

"Surprisingly enough," Weiss added.

"Hey," Winter said.

"You know what, I'll give you this one." Weiss said. "Since this may just be the only useful thing you've done in your entire life, I'll praise you for it."

"That wasn't praise," Blake said. "Also, the fact that I hear the conversation again after a half-second delay is really annoying."

"Everyone switch to push-to-talk," Winter said. "And thank you, Weiss. That may just be the only nice thing you've ever said to me."

"Funny," Yang said.

"What was?" Weiss asked.

"The fact that she fought back," Yang said.

Weiss reconsidered the last thing Winter said. "Well that wasn't as much fighting back as it was stating the truth."

"About as true as what you said," Winter said.

"You guys are giving me a headache," Ruby said. They really should be a lot more serious in a situation like this. "Let's split up. Winter, go with Weiss. Yang, stay with me. Blake, keep in contact."

"Got it," three voices said and then Winter said the same a few seconds later.

They split up and Ruby and Yang were left alone.

"About what you said earlier," Yang said. "I didn't notice her acting any differently."

"It's Weiss. What did you expect?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure I believe you."

"I'm not sure I care if you believe me or not," Ruby said. She took out her scroll and dialed Sun. She gave him a very short version of what was happening and told him to be on the lookout.

"Isn't involving even more people a bad idea?" Yang asked. "The fight would escalate and people could end up getting hurt."

"Yeah, but on the off chance things don't go according to plan, I'd rather have backup." Ruby said.

"Now that I think about it, that girl could be with Roman. That would go pretty badly for us."

"I doubt that's going to happen," Ruby said. "But we should be prepared for the possibility."

"I heard she's what you call an illusionist or something," Yang said. "If what I understood was right, she can make you see things that aren't really there."

"From my experience with her, she's also an unpredictable psychopath, so I guess there's no way to really fight her. I guess we may need to depend on backup arriving and dealing with her if she is around."

Yang's shoulders slumped. "I bet Velvet could take her."

"I don't know. Illusions could prove to be troublesome even for her."

Penny could probably destroy her, but that would cause more issues than it would solve.

* * *

A few hours later, Blake finally spotted Roman. He wasn't even trying to be subtle, just looking around.

She touched her earpiece and said, "I see him. He's not doing anything at the moment but that could change very quickly."

"Engage," Ruby said. "We'll be there in a few seconds."

Blake did exactly that. She drew her new sword and sent an aura blade his way before he noticed her.

He dodged in the last second and the aura blade continued on, crashing into a building.

Roman grinned. "It appears I've underestimated you lot. I didn't think you would be okay with wrecking some poor person's house just to get little old me."

"Nonlethal," Ruby whispered in Blake's ear as she passed by her.

The rest of the team arrived soon after. Most of the people in the street had already evacuated and the ones that hadn't were running away. The circumstances were perfect.

"Well, isn't this the perfect ambush," Roman said. "What am I to do?"

"You could come quietly," Ruby said.

"You know what? I think I'll take my chances." He said and fired at Ruby. She managed to dodge and Yang went up to meet him.

Roman got out of the way of her punch and tripped her, sending her to the ground. Blake went for him next and he blocked her sword and then hit her in the face with the other end of his cane.

Weiss couldn't do much from her position and decided to close in on him and distract him while her team regrouped.

She did a very obvious overhead slash meant to distract him, but instead of blocking he stepped up and grabbed her wrist. He then threw her over his shoulder and Weiss landed on her back, only to be greeted by an explosive shot from Roman's cane.

She focused her aura in front of her, but it was still very disorienting.

Just as she managed to scramble to her feet, she heard a very familiar voice say: "Hey! No one kills my sister but me." Followed by "Winter Centurion!"

Ice quickly started surrounding Winter.

The misshapen ball of ice formed arms, legs and a head. Then a sword and shield grew out of its hands. It was only slightly bigger than an Atlesian Paladin.

Weiss finally realized what Winter was going for. That thing looked exactly like the mechanical knight Weiss fought at her graduation.

Well, not quite, but it was clear where Winter got her inspiration from.

Winter, in her "centurion", looked at Weiss and nodded her head slightly. Then she charged at Roman.

Roman had a mesmerized look on his face, as if he had never seen anything this ridiculous in his life. Then as Winter approached, he shook it off and shot at her.

Winter lowered her shield and blocked Roman's shot. The shield exploded, but Winter kept moving forward.

Then another shot hit her in the leg, severing it. Before she could fall to the ground, another shot hit her other leg.

Winter's centurion's torso hit the ground. That was where Weiss assumed Winter's real body would be. Winter pushed herself up, only to be greeted by another couple of missiles, which took her arms.

Then another missile hit her head, obliterating it and before the giant could fall, yet another projectile hit its chest, shattering it in a million pieces and sending Winter flying back.

Winter always concentrated her aura on her ice, meaning that she would have minimal protection against that final explosive bullet. If Roman managed to hit her again, she might actually die.

"Hey!" Weiss yelled. "No one bullies my sister but me."

Roman looked at her and grinned. It was just enough of a distraction for Ruby to manage to hit him at full speed and send him crashing into a building. Blake followed and delivered a very strong, attack from her offhand, forcing him deeper into the ground. Finally, Yang went up to him, kicked the cane out of his hands and dragged him upright.

"If you don't want to go to jail with half your face missing, I'd suggest you give up now," she said, staring him down with her red eyes.

"Scary," Roman said. "I like you. Hey, listen, if you're free after this, would you like to go out for drinks?"

"I am free, but I'm afraid you won't be," Yang said.

"You could always let me go."

Ruby picked up his cane. It was a very interesting weapon she couldn't wait to study.

"I wouldn't," Roman said. Ruby quickly dropped it and a bunch of spikes came out of the handle.

"Thanks for the warning," she said. It was even better than she imagined.

"I think I'll have a little chat with him," Blake said. "Find out what he knows."

Since Weiss had no desire to watch Blake torture Roman, she decided to go check on Winter.

She seemed to be unconscious, so Weiss slapped her a couple of times.

"Whoa," Winter said upon waking up. "That was intense."

"How did you manage to get knocked out?" Weiss asked.

"Hit my head against the pavement, I think," she said. "Did we get him?"

"We got him. You were almost useful."

Winter grinned. "I told you I had something."

Weiss was pretty sure the dragon would have had the same effect and that lasting about five seconds in combat was nothing to be proud of, but she was going to let it slide this one time.

Ruby went up to check on them. "Has Winter had any training?" she asked.

"Nope," Winter said.

Ruby looked to Weiss.

"None at all. She came up with it all on her own."

"Then you did incredibly well," Ruby said. "I'm impressed. You should consider taking the test to a hunter school."

"No way," Winter said. "I like my current job."

"Are the cops on their way?" Weiss cut Ruby off before she could try to insist.

"They should be here any second now," Ruby said with a frown. "Blake couldn't get anything out of him."

They waited for them and unsurprisingly, SSSN showed up first. Everyone took turns watching Roman until an armored police car came to take him away.

Everyone, sans Winter, who was still travelling incognito, gave their statements and were allowed to leave.

Neptune and Winter seemed to get along pretty well.

Weiss heard a little of their conversation.

"You know, you're pretty cool," Neptune said.

" _Pretty_ cool? I'll have you know I fuck bitches. A lot."

"Yeah, me too! We're the best."

And then Weiss proceeded to actively ignore what either of them said for the rest of the night.

Out of nowhere, Blake pulled on Ruby's sleeve.

"What?"

"The ice didn't disappear until after Winter regained consciousness," Blake whispered.

"Not this again," Ruby warned.

"You can't say it isn't worthy of suspicion. She lied to us."

Ruby let the others walk a little further ahead before responding. "You don't know how her semblance works. There could be a million explanations for this. And even if she did lie, what exactly should we suspect her of? It's not that big of a deal. Maybe it's something embarrassing, or something that could put her or us in danger if we knew. Keeping secrets isn't suspicious. It's human nature."

"Secrets get people killed."

"Says the person who was hiding her past from us."

"That has nothing to do with this."

"Neither does Winter. She isn't part of the team. Her helping us out here was basically charity."

"Her help was unnecessary and you know it."

Ruby realized something was wrong. "Why are you picking a fight with me? We got Roman. You should be happy."

"I am, but I can't help but think that we're missing something. Why would Roman do what he did? The White Fang already want his head. This makes it even worse."

So she was taking her frustration out on everyone else? That was not the right thing to say. "I don't know. Maybe he thinks he'll be safer in jail." Ruby hated to use something Cinder told her against one of her team, but it was still a valid argument.

"He was involved in the breach. I doubt he's going to have it that easy."

"Compared to what the White Fang would do to him?"

"I don't know. The most likely scenario is that they'll execute him."

"And he's too valuable for us to kill or let him get killed," Ruby added.

"Make sense," Blake said. "But in the end, he can't tell us what we want to hear in fear he'll no longer be useful to us, so we're right back to square one. This entire thing was pointless!"

Defeatism wasn't unlike her, but this was a little much. "What's really wrong?"

"Nothing," Blake said, looking away. How did she not lose at the first hand when they played poker?

"Weren't you the one saying how secrets get people killed a few seconds ago?"

Blake stayed silent.

"You can trust me," Ruby said. "And I want you to trust me."

Ruby could tell that Blake felt conflicted. But, something like this might be her chance to warn her of the fact that the White Fang were going after her.

"It's nothing," Blake finally said.

"I really hate that about you sometimes," Ruby said.

"What?"

"That you're so passive. You don't do things. You don't say things. Even when you know you should."

"Maybe I know I shouldn't. I don't want you getting involved."

"I want to get involved. I want to know more about you. I want to understand you. I want to trust you. It's the only way this team is going to survive."

"The death of a quarter of the team is better than the death of the entire team," Blake said and turned away.

Ruby stood in front of her before Blake could react. "You know you can't outrun me. We're not going to do the whole us chasing you around for a week thing again. And guess what, I'm not dropping the subject until you tell me what's going on."

Blake looked around. She should know that she wouldn't be able to escape Ruby. The rest of their group seemed to have turned a corner somewhere, so it was just the two of them.

"The White Fang are coming after me," Blake finally admitted.

That was easy. "So? Beacon is well protected. We're strong. There's no reason to worry."

"Ruby, you haven't met the White Fang. The real deal. You've met the ground forces. The fodder. The ones who picked up guns out of a hope of a better life. You haven't seen the trained personnel. The soldiers. The leaders. They are the real deal. I've seen some of them fight and they're better than the hunters I've seen. Hell, my partner was strong enough to outclass experienced hunters. The four of us don't stand a chance."

"That's the sort of thing you should have told us a lot earlier," Ruby said. There really was nothing else to say.

"Yeah, I should have. I should have done a lot of things."

"Now's a good time to start. I never even considered the amount of information you could give me. I had no idea the White Fang was so well organized. If we take down the top, the rest would crumble."

Blake took a step back. "I will not have you use me to wage war on my former family," she said.

"That's not what I'm saying. They are a problem. We should do something about them and you're the only one who knows how. So they're coming after you? Let them come. We'll be ready. The most logical time to attack you would be during the tournament as one of the contestants. That's a start."

"Why would you think that? They could attack me anywhere."

"So why haven't they? Why warn you?"

"Because they want to play games. The tournament is great for that."

"Exactly. It's also a place where they won't be able to do anything without half the military force on Remnant getting in their way."

"Doesn't that make it more likely they'll attack me outside of it?"

"I don't know. I think they'll risk it, since it will be a very public place and the media will be covering all of it. I don't think they'd risk their elite operatives just to get you, no offence. If they're going to do anything, the tournament will be the most impactful."

"That sounds reasonable," Blake said. "So, everything happens tomorrow then?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. It really was tomorrow. She almost forgot what with everything going on. "We should get back to the others. And don't worry. I'll protect you. At least until someone more capable than me can take over and deal with the threat."

"I feel safer already," Blake said. Ruby couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

* * *

A few hours later, Ruby felt her scroll buzz. She opened it and saw a message from Cinder, asking to meet. Almost immediately after, a similar message appeared from Ozpin.

Well, Ozpin was certainly higher on her list of people she didn't want to make wait, so she quickly responded to both of them, telling Ozpin she would meet him ASAP and Cinder that she would have to wait a little.

"Guys, it looks like Ozpin finally heard about our new prisoner," Ruby said to the table. "I'm afraid I'll have to go see him now."

"Have fun," Weiss said and took Ruby's spot, which was closer to Yang.

Ruby didn't have time to dwell on it. She raced back to Beacon and went straight to Ozpin's office.

There she gave him, Ironwood and Glynda a short summary of what happened with Roman.

"Illogical," Ironwood said. "Utterly so. Why would he do that? And why announce it where he could be overheard?"

"He was trying to get caught," Glynda said. "Isn't it obvious? He wants protection from whoever his employers are. If you can guarantee him that, he'll tell you everything you want to know."

"What I want to know is how those WSIFAA bastards, or whatever they are, got their hands on Atlesian military equipment." Ironwood said. That piqued Ruby's interest.

"WSIFAA?"

"Markings found on the Paladins the White Fang seem to have procured." Ozpin explained.

"And the guns," Ironwood added. "And the armor. Practically all their equipment is made in, and probably paid for by Atlas and it is also better than what my soldiers are using. It's an absolute disaster. If I ever figure out who's behind it, I'll have them hanged."

"James, there are more important things at stake here," Glynda said. "You can find out who's been stealing from you after we're sure more Grimm aren't going to come pouring into the city out of nowhere."

"What do you expect me to do?" he asked.

"I don't know. Why did you bring an army here if you have no idea what to do with it?"

"That's enough," Ozpin raised his voice. "We shouldn't bore Ruby here with our petty squabbles. Now, James, if you could tell her about that other thing we talked about."

"Fine," Ironwood said. Then, he turned to Ruby. "What happened last month made us wonder if it wouldn't be beneficial to invest in a better security force for the city to repel Grimm attacks. As such, considering your performance, we decided to form a platoon made up of hunters in training, along with a seasoned hunter to lead them. The platoon will be made up of two sections, of which you will lead one. You will be in charge of four teams."

Ruby counted them up. "Sixteen for me, thirty-two total?"

"Thirty-two of the very best. You would be the first into danger and the first to respond to any and all major threats."

"What about Beacon?"

"Of course, you will continue your education, but you will have to be on constant alert. No matter when disaster strikes, you will need to be ready to meet it. How does that sound?"

Ruby couldn't quite find the word to describe it. It was a very solid plan, but being placed in a position like that sounded "Exhausting," she said.

"That's not much of an answer," Ozpin said. "And I'm afraid you do need to give us one now, since we need to put the bureaucratic wheels in motion as soon as possible if we want it to happen in a reasonable timeframe."

"Of course I accept," Ruby said. "It just sounds like I won't have any free time after it."

"Considering that the recent attack was the first of its nature in the many years that the city has existed, I doubt it," Ozpin said. "However, it could have been the start of a new way of waging war against us. If that's the case, I'm sure your unit will grow exponentially. Now, I believe you already know the leader of your new platoon."

"Sup kid?" Qrow came out of the shadows. "How ya doin?"

"Never better," Ruby said, trying her best to hide her surprise. Had he been in there all along, or did he sneak in? Regardless, she didn't notice him at all.

"Well, you heard all there is to it. We should head out if you ask me. Let the boring adults talk boring adult stuff."

"Sure," Ruby said. She could imagine where their conversation would go and she really didn't want to keep Cinder waiting any longer than she had to, lest she start blowing things up or something.

They went outside and Qrow looked her over seriously.

"You're taller."

"It happens."

"You've also modified your scythe quite a bit since I last saw it," he commented.

Ruby had completely forgotten she had it on her ever since capturing Roman. "Yeah. I made the blades removable with a lever here, so that if they get stuck I won't be completely weaponless. I also did a little work on the frame to make it lighter and have started using more powerful ammunition. But you already knew all of that, didn't you?"

"Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. How have you been?"

"Okay. Being a team leader is a lot of work. I feel like I do more to keep the team together than I do to keep up with classes. I guess you know how it is."

"I was never a leader," Qrow said.

"You are now."

"Not really. I just have to keep an eye on you guys. Once they know you can handle it on your own, they'll promote one of you and leave me alone."

"Do you know who'll lead the other section?"

"Some girl. Coco, I think. You know her?"

"Yeah. She's good."

"As good as you?"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far."

"We'll see tomorrow, I guess," he said. "You nervous?"

"Not really. Ever since I've been in a real life or death situation, stuff like this doesn't faze me nearly as much."

"Sounds about right," he said.

"What have you been up to?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, this and that. I cleaned up some Grimm. Took care of some ancient curse that made living in a certain area impossible. Cleaned up more Grimm. Went after a guild of assassins. Cleaned up a really big Grimm. You know, the usual stuff."

"Meet any ladies?" Yang always teased him about it, but since she wasn't here, it fell to Ruby to do it.

"Maybe." He said in a mysterious voice. "But no, I didn't."

As they were walking, he stumbled a little. He regained his balance almost immediately, but for someone like him to stumble was very unusual.

"Don't look at me like I'm about to drop dead," he said. "I haven't slept in, like, a week. I really should get to that, now that I think of it."

"Go sleep," Ruby said. "We'll catch up later."

"You have preliminaries tomorrow and I'm leaving at first light," he said. "I'll try to show up and see Yang, at least."

"You are not allowed to leave before seeing me fight," Ruby said. Her uncle was one of the strongest hunters around and Ruby certainly wanted his protection, if only so that Cinder would think twice about "accidentally" killing her in their match.

He sighed. "I'll see what I can do. Don't get your hopes up."

"If you leave before I win the tournament, I'm not going to talk to you ever again."

"I got it. I'll do something. Maybe I'll ask Tai to fill in for me. It's a teaching thing."

"He loves those. You can definitely convince him."

"Yeah, but on the other hand, he'll probably want to see his girls fight."

"He's seen us fight a thousand times. It's much more important for you to be here so that you can see any mistakes we make and help fix them."

"That he might actually buy." Qrow grinned. "Now, I really am about to fall down in the middle of the hallway, so see you around."

They split up and Ruby arranged a meeting place with Cinder.

* * *

"You know," Weiss said. "Ruby said something weird the other day."

"Is that so?" Yang asked, even though she already knew the answer. Her sister always said weird things.

"Yeah. She said something about you being in love with me. There's no way that's true, right?"

"Wait. She said the exact same thing to me about you."

"I assumed as much," Weiss sighed. "She's trying to stir up trouble for some reason."

"I doubt that."

"What other reason would there be for trying to get me together with someone who hates me?"

"I hate certain things about you," Yang said. "But I don't particularly dislike you as a person. You can be very cute."

"So what? You want to go out on a date now or something?"

"Sure, why not," Yang said and wrapped her arm around Weiss' shoulder. She visibly stiffened. "We are kind of already on one, though."

"Do not touch me."

"Why did you move closer to me then?" Yang rubbed her cheek against Weiss'.

"We're in public," Weiss whispered in Yang's ear.

The rest of their group was looking at them awkwardly.

"You guys really should get a room," Blake said.

"I'm not even holding her hand," Yang protested. "Besides, you can't say she isn't cute when she's embarrassed."

"I'm going to stab something." Weiss muttered. She was shaking slightly, although Yang wasn't sure it was because of rage.

"I'm going to hug you!" Yang said and went in for a frontal hug.

* * *

"You know, I hate being made to wait," was Cinder's greeting.

"Good to know. I'll start doing it more often," Ruby said.

"Funny. Now, about why I asked you to meet. Well, there's no way to really ease you into it, so let's just get on with it. A while ago, must be ten years now, I really don't remember. I met a huntress by the name of Summer Rose. A lot of things happened, but I'll sum it up a little. I know why her coffin is empty. I was there."

Ruby's immediate reaction was: "I don't believe you."

"That's why I told you I have gift for you. Here." She gave Ruby a long object wrapped in white, ripped cloth. It was unmistakably one of her mother's swords. Then she realized the cloth was one of her cloaks.

"How do you have that?"

"I found it shortly after I met her. Used it for a while. Before I started using obsidian."

There was only one thing Ruby could ask. "Did you have anything to do with my mother's death?"

"If I told you I didn't, would you believe me?"

"Yes."

"I didn't. I was there, but I couldn't do a thing." Cinder didn't look away. Ruby could see no tells. As far as she was able to reason, Cinder was telling the truth.

"So how did the two of you meet?"

Cinder smiled. "I wasn't a criminal back then. But enough of that. You want more information you'll have to give me something in return."

Ruby knew that anything Cinder could possibly ask for was worth more than any information she had on her mother. She knew that, but she still wanted to know.

"Is she even dead?"

Cinder went through a lot of faces, as if trying to decide which to use before giving up and just saying "Yeah."

"Why did you wait so long to tell me about all of this?"

"Waiting for the right moment, I guess," Cinder said. "I really was surprised when I found out her daughter was the person I met that night in Vale. Then you started poking your head in my business and I decided to see if you can be useful. The consensus is an astounding yes. You single-handedly reduced what should have been four annihilated districts to one heavily damaged."

"It wasn't single-handedly," Ruby said.

"Regardless, it was impressive. Impressive enough for me to want you on my team. Now, by revealing everything to you, we can begin to build a network of trust."

"That's never going to happen," Ruby couldn't contain herself. She knew that technically, the correct option was to pretend to trust Cinder so that she could get all of her plans, ideas, underlings, employers, etcetera. However, it was just too dangerous. Even now, Cinder was probably planning on how to convert Ruby to her side.

"It won't come naturally, but it is possible," Cinder said. "I know I can trust you to do the right thing when the time comes and now you have a reason to give me a chance."

Not in a million years. "What do you want in order to tell me more anyway? I still need to make sure you're not lying."

"I pretty much told you already. I want you to trust me. I guess a short-term goal would be in order as well. Let's see, if you beat me in our battle at the tournament, I'll tell you something worthwhile."

* * *

As Weiss was driving everyone back, Yang got a message from Ruby, asking to meet.

They did so in one of the deserted hallways of Beacon.

"Yang, I need you to swear to me that you're not going to talk about what I tell you with anyone. No matter what I tell you."

"Sure. What's up?"

"The girl we gave a ride yesterday, Cinder Fall, is the same person I fought the night I got accepted into Beacon. She's the leader of the terrorists and the person who tipped me off about Roman."

Yang needed a while to process that. She expected something embarrassing Ruby couldn't talk to anyone else about. Not something like this. "Have you told anyone else?"

"No."

"Are you being threatened?"

"Not really. She does have something I want, though." Ruby revealed the sword. "She said she knew my mom."

Yang took the sword. "I hope it's crossed your mind that she could be lying."

"Yeah, but the sword is proof there's something there.

Yang examined the sword in question. "That looks and feels like hers all right," she said. "But it could have been replicated by someone with access to mom's files. She's messing with your head."

That was something Ruby hadn't considered. She was so sure the sword was genuine.

"Uncle Qrow is here. He could take a look. If he doesn't see anything wrong, we could always send it to dad. If anyone knows, it'll be him," Ruby said. "If he asks where we got it, well, I'll come up with something."

"Qrow is here? You should have talked to him about this."

"I don't trust him as much as I trust you. I did get him to stick around just in case things start going south."

"That's good. Just try to remember that he can't work miracles."

"I know. Cinder Fall is dangerous, but I know what I'm doing. What she did tonight was unexpected, though. It caught me off-guard. Now that you know, I'll need your help with this. She thinks she can trust me, so very soon I'll have enough information to bring her entire organization down along with her."

"I don't need to tell you to be careful," Yang said. "But I will anyway. This could get very bad very quickly. If you ever feel like you're in the slightest amount of danger, call me, call Qrow, call all of our teachers and even Ozpin."

"Of course," Ruby said. "I wouldn't let it get that far anyway. The only reason why I haven't done it yet is because there are still things I don't know; things we'd need in order to take them down. Their command structure is not dependent on Cinder, so cutting the snake's head off wouldn't kill the body."

"Instead, two more will grow back," Yang said, remembering some of the mythology she learned a while ago. "Just be careful." Then she remembered something. "I also heard something about mom recently. It was hardly from a reliable source, but she said something about mom being on an off-the-records mission when she died. I don't know what that means, but if Cinder was around to pick up her weapons and it's actually true, she would know about it."

"That's perfect," Ruby said. "Where did you hear it?"

Yang made a disgusted face. "My mother."

"Wait, what? You met her? And you didn't even tell me?"

"I didn't tell you because there's nothing to tell. I wish I hadn't met her."

"That's a pretty horrible thing to say."

"Yeah, well, she's a pretty horrible person. It equals out."

"How is she horrible?"

"She knew all along that Summer died and she didn't do anything to help us. It's like we don't exist to her."

Okay, that was pretty horrible.

"Well, she wasn't that bad of a person really. She just felt extremely selfish. I wonder why she even saved me back at the train."

"She did?"

"Yeah. I guess I went in way over my head that time. I shouldn't have sent the others ahead."

"You what?"

"It was stupid. I thought I could stall that Neo girl until we stopped the train, but I didn't last at all. I would have been in trouble if Raven hadn't shown up."

Ruby sighed. "I can't believe you would take such a risk. Nothing we do here matters if you die."

"I know that, I just wasn't thinking. It won't happen again."

"It better not."

There was a short silence.

"By the way, you didn't tell Weiss I like her, right?" Yang asked.

"You do?"

"She said you told her I do."

"She lied."

"I thought as much. I teased her quite a bit as punishment."

Normally that would have been interesting, but Ruby was still thinking about Cinder and her mother. Then it hit her. Her mother was a student at Beacon.

It was worth checking out. "Yang, I think I need to break into Ozpin's office."

"Where did that come from?"

"He keeps files on all the students in Beacon. Very detailed files. Mom should have one."

"Do you know if her was even headmaster at that point?"

"Even if her wasn't, whoever was before him probably did it too. This is too good of a lead to not check it out."

Yang had a difficult expression. "That's a little... you know. I don't know if we should stick our noses in there."

Rummaging through her dead mother's secrets wasn't particularly appealing to Ruby either. "I know. The way things are right now, I don't think she would mind. I'm sure she would sacrifice a few secrets if it meant the downfall of a terrorist organization that caused the most damage to this city since the war."

"Well, of course, but... you know."

"I know." It was going to be painful.

There was a short silence.

"I should probably return to the dorm before everyone else starts worrying about us. I'll think of something to tell them about why you aren't with me."

"Good. And Yang, thanks for this. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Yang smiled. "Same here. You have no idea how happy I am that you came to me. Lately I've been feeling more and more disconnected from you, so it makes me so happy to know that you still trust and rely on me."

Ruby wondered about that. Had she really been ignoring Yang in favor of her other teammates? That wouldn't do at all. "I guess the reason we haven't been talking as much is because I know you so well in comparison to the way I know Weiss and Blake, that I haven't felt a need to hover over your shoulder like I do with them. It's not that I don't care about you, I just know you can take care of yourself and trust you to do what's best."

"I know that." Yang said. "But it's still kind of lonely, you know?"

"Yeah." Ruby could feel a warmth in her chest, one that was reserved especially for Yang. She hadn't realized how empty it was getting.

* * *

"Did you want something with my office?" Ozpin said, directly behind her. Ruby jumped around, reaching for her weapon by instinct.

"Well?" Ozpin asked.

"I want to see my mother's file," Ruby said, slightly out of breath.

"Let's go in then," he said and opened the door.

That was a lot easier than expected.

Ozpin sat behind his desk and brought up a bunch of pages as holographic images above it. "Here you go. This is my copy." he said.

Ruby looked without hesitation. She needed to know.

Everything except for her mother's name was blacked out. Even the picture.

"Some things are better left in the past. Your mother was a brave huntress and that is all you need to know."

"How long has it been like that?"

"I erased it as soon as I heard of her death."

"Why?"

"To protect you, your sister, your uncle and your father."

"What does that mean?"

"It means there are things even I want to forget. I wish I could black out my memory as easily as I did this file."

"I still want to know."

"One day, maybe. But not tonight."

"I need to know tonight."

"Need? Do you really? Why?" He had her there.

"Because I won't be able to sleep otherwise."

He looked up and Ruby met his eyes head on. "I think you're lying to me."

"So do I," Ruby said. "If you didn't destroy this file, would I have found something about an off-the-records mission in there?"

"Where did you hear that?" He looker angry. Almost.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Ruby teased. For the first time, she actually felt like she was in a position of control around him.

"I would, yes. There's a reason why it's called off-the-records. It's, oh..." He stopped dead in his tracks. "So she figured it out."

"Who did?"

"Don't you dare play stupid with me! And don't expect me to tell you anything. You have no idea how dangerous this is. People have died to protect the secrets you're trying to uncover. If you get involved any further... I can't guarantee your safety." He was legitimately angry. Ruby didn't think he was capable of it.

"I don't think we're on the same page here," she finally said, after a few minutes of the two of them glaring at each other. "I just want to know about my mom. That's it."

"I apologize for my earlier outburst," he said. "I was not thinking rationally. My mind just went to the worst possible conclusion. How did you know about that mission?"

"Raven Branwen told Yang and Yang told me."

"Raven?" He looked genuinely surprised. "That's... reassuring I guess. I didn't even know she was alive. She's been MIA for fifteen years."

So not even Ozpin knew about her. That made Ruby wonder how Yang managed to track her down. More likely that Raven found Yang.

"Can you tell me where I can talk to her?" Ozpin asked.

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure Yang doesn't either. Your best bet would probably be if she wanted to talk to you, which, if she hasn't by now, isn't likely to happen."

"Yeah. If there's one thing I can guarantee, it's that if Raven Branwen doesn't want to be found, she won't be. Now, will that be all?"

"Yeah. Thanks for nothing."

"I'm not going to apologize if that's what you're waiting for."

What a rude way of kicking someone out of your office.


	23. Chapter 25 - Preliminaries

"I think being forced to get up before the sun has risen should be punishable by death," Yang said. RWBY and Winter were lined up in front of the registration where the preliminaries for the tournament were going to take place.

"Five is a perfectly reasonable time to expect people to get up," Ruby said. It was four forty-five.

"Not for regular humans," Weiss said, yawning so wide Ruby wondered if her jaw wasn't going to come unhinged. "Also, we got up at three."

"Three thirty," Blake also yawned.

Ruby looked at Winter suspiciously. She didn't even go back to Beacon with them last night and here she was.

"I'm a corporate wageslave," she said. "Being up at weird hours is normal to me."

Well, all things considered, it wasn't too bad. Ruby knew she would be barely functional without her caffeine pills, so she wasn't going to complain.

JNPR walked up behind them.

"Why would anyone get up this early in order to be given the chance to wait a little closer?" Pyrrha asked.

"We get three hours," Ruby said. "That's not a lot. Fifteen minutes of standing in line could be the fifteen minutes you needed in order to complete the preliminaries on time."

"Fine, I'll ask a better question. Why did I have to get up this early?"

"Because we all got up this early," Jaune said. "And we are a team."

"To translate," Weiss said. "Jaune is worried he's not going to make it on time and wanted to be here as soon as possible. So he dragged all of you along with him. Which actually makes me wonder why we are here."

"Because we're somewhat famous and want to set a proper example," Ruby said. "And you guys need more discipline."

* * *

An hour and fifteen minutes later they got to the front office. Weiss went up first.

"Name?" The clerk asked mechanically.

"Weiss Schnee." She entered it.

The clerk looked back to Weiss, studying her. There was probably something strange in her file. The clerk checked a few other things on her scroll and held out a card. "You have sixteen points from your ranking and tier and another fifteen from your attendance at Beacon. That puts you just over halfway to the necessary for entrance. For an easy extra fifteen I would recommend the versatility challenge."

"Thank you. I'll consider it," Weiss said and took the card.

"Now, please sign here to verify that you are aware of the risks and you can get to it."

It basically said it was her own fault if she got killed or seriously injured. Weiss signed it and let Yang go ahead.

"Name?"

"Yang Xiao Long." Yang answered.

She typed it in and then gave Yang the card. "Twenty points from your ranking and tier and twenty from your honor roll performance at Beacon. Try strength and reflexes for an easy five to ten points each."

"Thanks," Yang said and signed the scroll. and Blake went up.

"Hi, Blake Belladonna."

"You get fifteen points from your rank and tier and fifteen points for your performance at Beacon. For you, I'd recommend the agility and aura defense courses. You can get up to ten points from each." She gave Blake her card.

"Thank you."

It was finally Ruby's turn.

"Ruby Rose."

The woman typed the name in and then looked back up at Ruby with an ill-disguised frown. "Sign here and you may proceed to the tournament," she said.

"Wait, what?"

"A person of your stature doesn't need to do the preliminaries." She held out a card.

Ruby looked back at her teammates. That was no fun. "I'd like you to only give me the points I get from my schooling and ability," she said.

The woman looked puzzled. "I can certainly do that, but why?"

"Just because. Come on, I'll owe you one."

She hit a few buttons and then handed Ruby a card. "Twenty from your ranking and tier. Twenty for your performance and position at Beacon. Speed trials can give you an easy fifteen points."

Ruby was ready to go when she remembered they had one more person with them.

"I shouldn't be registered with you. My name is Wintry Shneigh and I'm an A/1." Winter said.

"Unless you have some records to verify that, I'm afraid I can't put those down," the clerk said.

Winter frowned. "No fair. Can I at least get a card for challenges and stuff?"

"Certainly, although I would recommend hurrying since there isn't a lot of time to get sixty points."

"I'm not happy with this," she murmured while taking her card.

"Maybe you should have gone for a less obvious lie," Weiss said and led her sister away.

"It's true, though."

"No, it isn't."

"Speaking of," Yang spoke up. "Sixteen is a weird number to get. I didn't know you had a tier one semblance, Weiss."

"One minus, technically. You saw the fight against Fox. You saw what I could do with unlimited aura during breach. The only reason why I'm not a zero is the fact that I can do about three consecutive all-out attack chains at a time before my aura runs out. That's assuming I don't get hit in the meantime and am at full aura at the beginning."

"In other words, you suck," Yang said. "It's okay. We all do."

"I don't," Ruby protested.

"From what I remember, you haven't won a single one of the many training matches we did," Blake said.

"Neither did you," Ruby said.

"Actually, now that I think about it, we are pretty awesome," Yang said. "So, are we doing this thing or are we going to stand around here until we run out of time?"

"Yeah. What are your plans?" Ruby asked.

"We're doing three rounds of doubles," Yang said, putting her arm over Weiss' shoulder. "Easy way for both of us to get our points."

When did they agree on that? "Cool, Blake?"

"I might try the aura duels," she said. "And the ones the clerk recommended. You?"

"Speed trials and I don't know. Winter, want to join me for a few rounds of doubles?"

"Sure," Winter said. "Although I might also have to get a few others. Let's see here," she looked through a leaflet. "I could do most of these, but my timeframe is very limited. General defense looks like it can give some pretty serious points so I'll try that. Doubles is another thirty and I need ten more. Huh, I might do some other random ones for the last. Okay, let's go, no time to lose." She grabbed Ruby's hand and dragged her to the doubles tent.

"We'll head there too," Weiss said to Blake. "Do you want to come watch or are you going to do yours?"

"I'd rather do mine," Blake answered. "I don't want you guys to see me lose anyway."

"You're certainly not going to win with that attitude," Yang said and patted her on the back. "You'll do fine. Even if that doesn't work out, there's plenty of other stuff you could try."

"I guess. See you guys," Blake said and walked in the direction of the aura duels, while Weiss and Yang made their way to the double battles.

They found Winter throwing a hissy fit in front of the tent.

"I'm so done. First they don't acknowledge my abilities, then they throw us against an impossible opponent first thing. Screw this. I'm going to go get drunk. Who's with me?"

"Winter, all of us still stand a chance of getting in," Weiss said. "Go chat up the locals. Maybe you'll find someone in a similar predicament."

"I think I will," Winter said, picked up her hat, and left.

"Shouldn't someone go watch over her and stuff?" Yang asked.

"Something something, half the military on Remnant, something something, Winter Dragon." Weiss said. "She'll be fine. I'm more interested in how she managed to screw it up so royally that you lost the first fight."

"She was actually pretty great," Ruby said. "We just got unlucky with our enemies. I'll go do the speed thing and sharpshooting or something while I still have time."

"You could get Blake to do doubles with you after she's done with the aura thing," Yang said.

"I can't, I already lost. You can only sign up once for any challenge." Ruby said and left.

Weiss and Yang shared a look. If it was so difficult that Ruby lost on the first round they might be in trouble.

Surprisingly, their first round went very well and so did the second. On the third, Yang was pleasantly surprised to find that she knew their opponents.

"Sup guys," she said to the twins.

"We aren't guys," the one with the claws said.

"It's a figure of speech," Yang said. She realized that maybe pleasantly surprised wasn't the best way to describe it. "And we should get to it."

"You are very eager to lose," one of them said as the time counted down.

The timer hit zero and Yang went ahead. She was certain she could deal with the two of them on her own.

She went after the one with the claws first, but she blocked her punch and the other kicked at Yang from the side. One of Weiss' glyphs stopped her, but while Yang was distracted the clawed one kicked her in the knee.

"Ow," Yang said. That was one out of three hits. The girl took that as an opening and attacked with her claws. Weiss blocked it with her sword.

Yang jumped past her in order to block the one with the heels, who was going to kick Weiss in the back, but the girl changed her stance and tried to punch Yang in the face.

Weird. It was all too weird. They weren't supposed to be able to do that. The one with the heels only attacked with kicks and the one with the claws only used them. So why were they suddenly able to use each other's movesets all of a sudden?

A kick in front of her face brought Yang back into the fight. They really shouldn't have switched opponents like that. She hated fighting against people who used kicks.

Whichever one of the twins she was fighting, she had gotten better. Yang had a little trouble keeping up. She chanced a look at the other fight and Weiss wasn't faring much better. She was obviously saving her strength for the tournament, so she was very discreet in her use of glyphs. Mostly, she used her rapier, which would be much better suited for fighting the one with the heels.

"Switch," Yang yelled. Weiss sidestepped in Yang's direction and they exchanged positions. It cost them a second, but it should make their fights go a lot better.

Yang was greeted by her new opponent with a kick to the face she couldn't evade in time.

How did the two of them get this much better in just a few months? Yang couldn't really believe it. She chanced a glance and saw that the heeled sister was attacking Weiss relentlessly with her fists, staying too close to Weiss for her to be able to counterattack properly.

That lapse in concentration was enough for Yang to get hit again. Three strikes. She was out.

Weiss got hit in the back and then the other twin kicked her feet out from under her, allowing her sister to deliver a final kick while Weiss was still on the ground.

"You knew the two of them, didn't you?" Weiss asked after they left he doubles tent.

"Yeah. They work as security at Junior's club." Yang said. "They weren't anywhere near as good back when I fought them, though. I took them both on and won easily."

"I guess people get stronger," Weiss said. "How many more points do you need?"

"Five," Yang answered. "You?"

"Fourteen. I still can't believe your grades are that much better than mine."

"If you put a little effort into training for pure physical combat, you would have more points. Or studying, I guess."

Weiss looked around absent-mindedly. "I might do it for next year."

* * *

Blake reached the tent where the aura duels would be held and signed up. A few minutes later, she was called and fought someone from Haven.

It wasn't too difficult. She beat him and went over to get the name of her next opponent.

She was surprised to find out she already knew him. They had a bit of a wait before they could continue, since the fighting area was rather small and only three pairs could fight at a time, so Blake decided to go say hi.

"Hello Ren," she greeted him.

"Hello Blake," he replied. "I didn't know you were interested in this sort of thing."

"Ruby recommended it to me," she said. "And I think it's pretty neat. Learning more control over aura could be very useful for me."

"Something like this doesn't teach you control as much as it teaches you how to flex your aura muscles. It's still very useful in teaching you how to use the extended abilities of aura in a fight."

That reminded Blake of something. "Do you still see butterflies in my aura?"

"I do," Ren said. "I still don't know what it means."

"I'm kind of relieved. I wouldn't like it if you knew more about me than I know about myself."

"Well, I think I already might. Aura and hair don't usually interact very well, but with you it's a lot stranger than it usually is."

Blake ran a hand through her hair. "I'm impressed. Did you notice my ears the first time you saw me?"

"I wasn't talking about the ears. Your aura is thinner around your hair, for some reason."

"I know you weren't talking about the ears. I was trying to deflect to the ears. And it isn't for some reason. It's by choice," Blake said.

"Now I'm almost curious," Ren said.

"It's stupid. Also, it's our turn."

They went up and started their battle. It wasn't long. Ren pierced Blake's defense with ease and made a small cut on her palm.

He continued with the duels and Blake left the tent. Ruby was waiting for her outside.

"I got five points," Blake said.

"I got zero on my first one," Ruby said. "I did run through the speed trials on my way here, so I got ten from that."

"Was it hard?"

"I don't think you could do it. Although, general defense looks like it would be good for both of us. Want to try that?"

"I guess," Blake said. What little motivation she had going into this thing was quickly starting to evaporate.

"Oh, relax, twenty-five points will be easy. General defense gives twenty."

And so, they went to the general defense tent, where they were shot by a few different types of guns. Ruby tried her best to move out of the way, but a few caught her. Blake just endured all of them.

Finally, they had a guy try to crash a broadsword into the tops of their heads while they couldn't attack back. That last one was optional.

They were graded and Blake got fifteen points, while Ruby got ten.

"So are you done?" Blake asked.

"I can go to the next one with you," Ruby said. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. We could get the others too. There's over an hour left, so we aren't really in a hurry."

"I disagree. Our first priority is getting all of us in. Anything else comes secondary."

"Fine. Let's just do this and that and whatever," Blake said, pointing at random tents.

* * *

At exactly eight twenty-five, RWBY assembled in front of one of the many boards where the schedule for the tournament would be displayed.

Five minutes later, it appeared.

"I am so done," Weiss said and threw her card at the board but Ruby snatched it out of the air before it hit.

"I thought you would be prepared for such a possibility," Ruby said, looking at the board. The first match was going to be Velvet Scarlatina versus Weiss Schnee.

"This system is idiotic. What if the two strongest people fought in the first round? Then the entire tournament would be meaningless."

"There's no way that would happen," Ruby said. "I agree that the system is not made to be balanced, but I'm sure there is some artificial balancing going on. You don't actually believe these were random, do you?"

"Why not?" Yang asked.

"Because this is a medium for entertainment," Blake said. "Something like this is a lot more exciting than another competition for points, which would probably be the most balanced. The same goes for why you would want to match up people who would have interesting fights.

"But the strongest person would still win, right?" Yang asked.

"Not necessarily." Ruby said. "Imagine if that strongest person had a stomach ache the day of their fight with the third strongest. Or just a really, really bad matchup. And let's not count out bad luck. And what makes the strongest person the strongest? Their ability to fight any enemy and win? Their combat ability against a basic opponent like the Grimm? Or something else entirely?"

"I get it," Yang said. "So basically, this is for fun."

"Yeah, which is why I'm sure you can imagine why I'm a tiny bit upset I won't win a single battle." Weiss said.

"Wasn't there going to be a second chance type of thing? You could still win some there," Yang said. "Looks like you'll fight either Pyrrha or Penny, depending on who loses."

"That makes me feel much better."

"Does Pyrrha actually stand a chance?" Yang asked.

"Probably," Ruby said. "Her semblance is a pretty hard counter to Penny's swordplay."

Blake looked at the board. She was going to be fighting an Adam Taunos.

He was worse than Winter.

She looked to Ruby, wondering if she should say something. She decided against it. She was being incredibly stupid, but she wanted a chance to talk to Adam one last time.

Yang was going to be fighting Mercury and Ruby was not surprised to find that her opponent would be Cinder in the last match of the day.

"Are you going to be okay?" Yang asked Ruby quietly.

"I have Qrow watching just in case," Ruby said. "If it looks like I'm in any real danger, I'm sure he's going to interfere. Besides, she didn't spend all that time talking to me only to kill me off the first chance she gets. We'll probably have a friendly fight and that will be it."

"You do know I have really good hearing, right?" Weiss said, startling Ruby and Yang. "What was that about?"

"I've decided to heed your warning about Cinder and her friends," Ruby said without missing a beat. "So I got my uncle to stick around. Please don't tell anyone because I don't want to be considered as paranoid as you are."

Weiss felt a little stumped. That was the most obvious lie she had heard in her life, and she grew up with her father. However, Ruby was actually doing what Weiss wanted her to. "Okay. Glad to know I could be of help."

She already had enough to worry about with her fight with Velvet in about an hour.

JNPR walked up next to them.

"Ouch," Pyrrha said, looking at the first match.

"Right back at you," Weiss said.

From the look on her face, Pyrrha clearly remembered what Penny did in the Breach.

"Cardin, huh?" Jaune said. "Might be the only person on that board I actually have a chance of beating."

"Of the ones I see, there are at least three more I know you have a chance against," Weiss said. "And I'll add all the names I don't know to that list."

"Why?" Nora asked.

"If I don't know of them, they aren't dangerous enough for us to care."

"Shouldn't that be the opposite?" Blake asked. "Since we don't know anything about them, aren't we at a disadvantage?"

"Maybe. I think from here on out, rule number one should be that we don't trust what our potential enemies have to say."

"Were you trying to trick us into not taking some of our fights seriously?" Ruby asked.

"Yep."

"You can't have expected that to work."

"I didn't. It was more of a declaration of war type of thing."


	24. Chapter 26 - Day one - Weiss vs Velvet

Weiss checked her weapons and equipment for what felt like the hundredth time. She knew she didn't stand a chance, but she wasn't going to give up without even trying.

She walked into the arena. It was quite big, with what probably would have been some very useful terrain features, if she was fighting anyone else. The center was basically a large sand pit, with some weapons left on the outside rim. That was going to be a problem if she ever got to fight Pyrrha. Outside of that, there was a small ring-out area, which would be an automatic loss if a contestant was to touch it.

Outside of that, there were the stands, with thousands of people watching. Weiss completely tuned them out. The only person she cared about right now was right in front of her.

"The way I see it," Weiss said. "The outcome of this battle will become obvious in the first ten seconds."

"Agreed," Velvet said. "Let's make it a good ten seconds."

There was a ten-second countdown. Both of them waited for it to pass.

Then, three seconds after that, just enough for Velvet to wonder why she wasn't attacking, Weiss summoned a large glyph, enhanced with a few different types of dust, over both of them and moved up.

Velvet waited patiently. Most people would have thought she was underestimating her opponent, but Weiss knew she was just waiting for her to make the first move.

Weiss conjured an explosive glyph under Velvet, who immediately moved to the side. Weiss didn't even bother blowing it up. She placed another under her and she moved again, this time towards Weiss. She was going on the offensive. Perfect.

Weiss put a strong glyph between them. Velvet didn't try to go around it, but instead crashed through it.

It accomplished its purpose of slowing her down, which Weiss used to activate the glyph overhead, raining ice, fire and lightning onto the arena.

Since there was nowhere to dodge, except for the outside of the arena, Velvet chose to stand in place and take the attack. It gave Weiss just enough time to conjure out the most powerful binding glyphs she could and throw them at her.

Finally, Weiss prepared the execution move she invented for the sake of winning this very fight. She switched Myrtenaster to white dust and activated its finishing move. Then she used all of the aura she had left to create a ridiculous amount of acceleration glyphs between herself and Velvet and finally let go of her sword.

The flash of light from Weiss' attack was about to strike true, but suddenly deflected upwards.

Then, Weiss saw something in the air besides Myrtenaster.

When they both hit the ground, Weiss finally saw what had intercepted her attack. It was another sword. A shortsword, to be precise. With a crossguard that looked just a little too long.

It definitely wasn't one of the weapons in the ring.

Velvet finally used a weapon in battle.

She was smiling, Weiss noticed. Then, Velvet slowly moved her arm forward, breaking the glyphs that bound it in place.

She held out a thumbs-up for Weiss, as if congratulating her for getting this far. Weiss smiled as well.

It was time for her to lose.

Weiss saw a ripple of energy pass over Velvet's skin, followed by an explosion of aura that obliterated all of the glyphs holding her in place.

As she was falling, Velvet's blade shot at its master, who caught it before touching the ground.

Weiss knew she had only one move left. With no dust and no aura, there was only one final thing she could use.

"I forfeit," she said as she watched Velvet run her way.

"Good choice," Velvet said, who was standing right in front of her by the time Weiss got the words out. "Although I was only going to choke you into unconsciousness."

That probably would have looked cooler.

* * *

Weiss felt physically and mentally drained. She made her way to the stands where everyone was watching from.

The first thing she saw was Winter sucking on a lollipop. Short black hair popping out from under her hat, the rest of it hidden away.

"Want one? I got a hundred."

"I'm cutting your expenses," Weiss said.

"You can't," Winter answered. "That's my own money I'm spending."

"Oh yeah? Did you earn it yourself?"

"Why do you think I'm at the company all day? Surprisingly enough they give you money for doing work."

Weiss felt like her entire world was falling apart. Winter with a job? That she got paid for?! What comedy routine did that line come out of?

"Also dad said he'd kick me out of my apartment if I didn't start being a productive member of society."

That sounded more like her.

"What do you even do?"

"I'm an assistant."

"What does that even mean?"

"I assist people."

"So you're a secretary?"

"No. Well, yes. Kind of."

Weiss decided to let the subject drop. She didn't really care.

"You did great," Ruby said.

"I lost," Weiss said. "In under five seconds."

"You lasted five seconds," Yang corrected her. "I wouldn't have."

"That's why you weren't the one fighting her," Blake said. "It was a good choice to start it like this."

"I guess," Weiss said and sat down. "Although it would make more sense to save your best battles for the end."

"You also need to open with something good," Ruby said. "And regardless of what happens, I imagine the ones fighting in the end will have to be really good."

"Where's Jaune," Weiss asked, finally realizing there was someone missing from their usual group. "And Nora," she added after scanning the stands.

"Training," Ren replied. "Probably."

"Pyrrha?"

"Getting ready for her fight."

"I finally realized why the two of you in the beginning was a bad idea," Yang said. "There will be about twenty minutes without a fight."

"Should be alright," Ruby said. "You really messed the arena up."

"That's what it's for. Still, they're probably going to move Pyrrha and Penny up," Weiss said. "They don't really need to follow the times they set. Helps if there's a drawn-out match."

"Have you seen one of these before?" Yang asked.

"Yes. Why do you think I knew who Pyrrha was on our first day?"

"Doesn't that screw it up for people who only wanted to tune in for a single match?" Ruby asked.

"It does, but I think there's a scroll application that notifies you of the changes."

"There is," Winter said. She was already doing something on her scroll. "So this schedule is a bust. But at least since I'm here I can bet properly. Who do you think is going to win the next one?"

"Penny," Ruby, Weiss and Yang said in unison.

"And the one after that?"

"Give it here," Yang said and started marking who she thought was going to win every match. She handed it to Weiss for confirmation.

"Looks good," Weiss said and gave it back to Winter. "By the way, you owe me a scroll."

"Times twelve? Sweet." Winter said and placed her bet. "How did you know about the scroll?"

"Who else would have done it?"

"Good point. Here's the memory module." Winter gave Weiss a small chip.

"And the scroll?"

"I'll buy one after I collect my winnings."

"It's starting," Blake said, looking at the arena.

Pyrrha and Penny entered from opposite ends.


	25. Chapter 26 - Day one - Penny vs Pyrrha

There was no meaningless chatter between Pyrrha and her opponent. They waited for the countdown and began fighting.

Penny opened with a straight throw towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha moved herself out of the way and touched the blade as it passed her. They might as well call the match now.

Penny pulled the wire and got her blade back. Then, she threw it again.

Pyrrha started closing the distance. She altered the course of the blade slightly, so that she didn't have to dodge as much, but it kept coming for her. She managed to get her shield up in time.

When the sword hit, she didn't feel her semblance on it. Did Penny have something to neutralize it?

Pyrrha moved up more cautiously, dodging Penny's sword where she could and blocking it where she couldn't.

When she got close, Penny jumped to a different side of the arena, throwing a sword at Pyrrha so that she couldn't follow her. Then, Pyrrha felt an amazing amount of electromagnetic energy and when she turned to see Penny, she saw her holding her sword out with a glowing ball of matter in front of it.

Pyrrha immediately got her shield up and braced herself for impact.

Contrary to her expectations, Penny didn't launch a projectile, but instead fired it slowly, as a beam. It quickly ate through Pyrhra's aura and then made its way through her shield. Pyrrha pulled herself out of the way, but the beam followed her, tearing through the ground where she was.

Then, a really horrible plan formed in her mind. It was the only thing she could do. She launched herself up in the air, where if the beam was to follow her, it would probably hit the audience.

As expected, Penny stopped firing.

However, Pyrrha floating in the air by her armor was a dead giveaway for what her semblance was. Oh, well.

Pyrrha moved down experimentally, but as soon the stands were clear she felt the energy around Penny building. She went back up and it stopped.

Penny looked at her for a while, while Pyrrha was trying to figure it out, but then rose off the ground and went above Pyrrha, preparing another blast.

Pyrrha quickly moved higher, but the energy didn't subside. She wasn't in the way of the stands anymore. She quickly dove to the ground, but Penny also moved and sent a beam at Pyrrha, angled toward the ground.

Pyrrha was almost certain that was going to be it when she thought of something new. That electromagnetic energy felt strangely like her own semblance. If she could disrupt that maybe she would be able to disrupt the beam.

Since she had nothing else that could work, she tried it.

She created a powerful electromagnetic field in front of Penny's sword and the ball of matter in front of it exploded violently.

As the flash of light subsided, Pyrrha saw Penny diving at her, with about a dozen swords surrounding her.

It was surprising that she would change tactics so quickly, but Pyrrha had no time to dwell on it, as she had to defend herself from multiple swords attacking her. Without being able to move the swords so that they would miss her, her only choice was to defend herself or dodge, which was impossible when fighting that many projectiles.

The first sword to hit her was entirely stopped by her aura, but the second and third weren't. They went through her skin, but Pyrrha was able to move away quickly enough that she didn't suffer any serious injury. Then she felt a slight magnetic field behind her and she couldn't move out of the way quickly enough. She couldn't even stop herself from moving into it.

* * *

"Would you please call the match," Penny said, standing in front of Pyrrha, who was trying to fight with a sword sticking out of her back and poking out through her ribs.

"Not yet." Pyrrha managed to say.

"Miss Nikos is still capable of fighting. Unless she surrenders, the match will go on." came from an announcement overhead.

Ruby knew this wasn't going to end well. She sped through the crowd to the judges' spot.

"Do you want her to get killed? Call the match," she said to Ironwood, who was closest to her.

"A match isn't over until one of the contestants is either unable to continue fighting, or surrenders. Miss Nikos is a very famous Mistralese tournament fighter. Penny is a citizen of Atlas and I'm an Atlesian general. If I call the match prematurely, can you imagine the kind of political strain that would put on me?"

"You know Penny is too powerful to be able to safely skirt the line between killing and incapacitating her. Are you really going to let a promising huntress in training die because saving her might negatively impact your political position? I thought you were a good guy."

"It could start a war," Ironwood said. "You stop the match if you want that burden on your shoulders. You have the authority."

"Fine," Ruby said. She took his microphone. She thought up her words very carefully and even consulted Ironwood before saying them. "My name is Ruby Rose and in my right as a Defender of Vale, and a third party, uninvolved in the politics between Mistral and Atlas, I judge Pyrrha Nikos incapable of continuing her fight without endangering her own life."

She gave the microphone back to Ironwood.

"Glynda would have interfered if she saw a killing blow," he said.

"Would she have been able to? She couldn't stop the beams."

"I don't really know. I shouldn't have made Penny fight after all," he mused.

"You made her fight?"

"Yeah. This is a mess. Should have just cancelled the entire thing after that bunny almost killed her opponent in the finals last time."

"And then you'll have people panicking because they can't see how powerful the forces defending them are." Ozpin said. "I would like to abolish them as well, or at least make it so that students fight until they run out of aura. Unfortunately, we both know that at this point, that's not going to happen."

Ruby realized that the judges might just be prominent figures from all four cities. She really didn't want to be here.

But there was still something she had to ask.

"There is someone from Vacuo here, right?" she said.

"Yes." A woman with bright green eyes and dark skin said.

"You could have been the one to stop the match. It would have been even better than me."

"That is entirely true. I didn't, though. Why would I?"

"To save a person's life?"

"What do I care? People die on the streets every day in all four cities. If you want to save lives, go help them."

"I'll go ahead and cut this off now," Ozpin said. "Ruby, feel free to leave. I'm not kicking you out, I just don't think you'll find anything of interest here."

He was totally kicking her out. Ruby wanted to leave anyway, so she did.

She returned to the stands and explained to her team what happened.

"I have to say," Yang said. "When you went over there, I did not expect you to be able to call the match. You are in the tournament after all. You could have wanted to eliminate Pyrrha so that you wouldn't have to fight her."

"I doubt anyone would think that," Weiss said. "You saw the fight. But I do agree that it was a conflict of interest."

"I didn't have much of a choice," Ruby said. "You saw that beam eat through Pyrrha's armor. Ironwood put it in a good way. It was a mess."

The next fight was between Mercury and someone they didn't know. It was pretty good.

Qrow joined them midway. He yawned before saying, "You guys suck."

"If you were in the tournament you would have slept through the preliminaries," Yang said. "Besides, you haven't seen me fight yet."

"My first tournament, that was exactly what happened. Raven, of all people, won that one."

Yang had to suppress a tingle of excitement and disgust at hearing that name. "I'm surprised she didn't sleep through them as well."

"She did. She didn't need to do any. This was back when she was half-decent at fighting."

"She isn't now?"

"Well, okay, she never really was. She just has the most abusable semblance in the world."

At some point, the people fighting changed to Coco and Neptune. It was over before it really began.

"It's Jaune's fight next," Ruby said before Yang could continue drilling her uncle for information. "And yours is after that." She reminded her.

"I know," Yang said. She would be fighting Melanie Malachite.


	26. Chapter 26 - Day one - Jaune vs Cardin

Jaune entered the arena and met Cardin Winchester in the middle.

He was sure he was going to win. There was no way he could lose. Not after everything Pyrrha taught him.

His entire body was burning from the workout Nora put him through, but that made it even better. He was all fired up.

"You know," Cardin said. "You're okay. You proved you can pull your weight in the Breach. I'm not going to hold back."

"I wouldn't have wanted you to," Jaune said. He took out his sword and expanded his shield.

Cardin pulled out his mace and they both waited for the timer to count down.

There was no contest. Jaune blocked Cardin's first strike and slashed at his leg. The aura stopped his sword, so he disengaged. He wouldn't be able to finish it with one hit, but the difference between them was obvious.

Cardin was much slower and not nearly as much stronger as he used to be.

Jaune realized that Pyrrha must have slowly started taking their training more and more seriously. Fighting against someone weaker than her made him realize just how much stronger he had become.

He experimentally pushed back against another of Cardin's strikes, forcing him back and off-balance, giving Jaune the time to swing much harder, hitting him across the face.

Time to finish this. Jaune Kicked Cardin's chestplate, knocking him down. He placed his sword above his neck.

"You can't get out of this," Jaune said. "Not without taking an injury."

Surprisingly, Cardin put his hands up. "Heh, you got me," he said. "I'll get you back for that one."

The announcers declared Jaune to be the winner.

"I don't plan on losing any fights," Jaune said. "So feel free to win the loser's bracket and fight me at the very end." He gave Cardin a hand.

"Man, you have a big mouth. Even though, at best, you'll fight that monster in the fourth round."

"Nah, Pyrrha will beat her."

Cardin looked surprised. "Dude, where were you? Pyrrha lost."

"What?"

"Yeah. She even played dirty, trying to use the audience as a hostage, and she still lost."

Jaune didn't know what to say. He thought that the monster Cardin was referring to was Velvet, but maybe it wasn't.

For Pyrrha to lose... He didn't know what to say.

Actually, there was one thing. "Was she injured?"

"Yeah," Cardin said. "Go see her. I'm sure she'll be fine, but don't take my word for it."

"Yeah. Thanks." Jaune left the arena in a hurry.

* * *

He found Pyrrha in a medical tent. She had bandages around her torso.

"I will be able to fight by tomorrow," was her greeting. "I won't be at full strength, but I should be good enough for Weiss."

"How hurt are you?"

"The blade passed clean through. I'm sure she intended for it to be that way. That's why I thought I would be able to keep fighting. Of course, Ruby got worried and called the match."

"Ruby?"

"Yes. I have to get her back for that. I fought as hard as I could, but she didn't let me finish it."

"If you were injured like that, maybe she was right."

"She wasn't. I was gaining the advantage. I doubt Penny had anything else to surprise me with, and I already had counters for everything else she had. I still doubt I would have won, but I would have liked to get the chance to find out."

"I heard something about you endangering the audience."

"I doubt they were in any danger. Penny didn't strike me as the type of person to kill people for no reason. If it looked like she wouldn't have stopped, I would have jumped in the way. I'm sure Glynda could have done something about it too."

"I never would have expected something like that from you."

"I know. I'm not really sure why I did it. I didn't have time to think."

"Was Penny really that powerful?"

"Overwhelmingly so. Even for me."

"If that's the case, what am I supposed to do if I have to fight her?"

"Surrender."


	27. Chapter 26 - Day one - Yang vs Melanie

Raven watched as Yang and Melanie went out. Melanie was wearing both of the twins' weapon sets.

It was going to make for an interesting experiment.

Raven pulled her hat down so that it would obscure her face. "I'm sure you know what to do," she told Militia, who was sitting next to her.

"We do," Militia said.

Melanie and Yang started fighting. Melanie didn't really try to hit Yang, instead evading and using Yang's momentum to throw her around as much as she could.

"Try hitting her," Raven said. "I want to see her semblance in action."

"That will make it harder for us to win," Militia said.

"Winning would be effortless either way," Raven said. "Let me have a little fun."

Melanie kicked Yang as hard as she could. Yang stood there and let it happen. Then her eyes turned red and she began a much more furious offensive.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but she's stronger and faster like this, right?" Raven asked.

"Yes."

"Makes you wonder why she didn't start off like that."

"Because she needs to get hit. You know that."

"Yes, but why? Why does it matter if she gets hit? It doesn't make any sense."

"That's how her semblance works."

"Yes, but why?"

"You're annoying and we're trying to fight here."

"Ask her."

"What?"

"Ask her why her semblance requires for her to get hit in order to work."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't care. Ask her yourself."

"That's what I'm doing."

* * *

"Raven asks why you need to get hit," the girl Yang was fighting said out of nowhere.

That surprised Yang enough for Melanie to be able to score an easy hit.

"How do you know Raven?" Yang squeezed out between her grit teeth. What was going on?

"She has been teaching us to fight," the girl said. "Please answer the question so that I can end the match."

"Don't get cocky," Yang said, making a feint and going for a strong punch.

It didn't work at all. The girl punched Yang in the face with her clawed hand, leaving three lines on Yang's face that stung a little.

"Right now you're fighting three people who are all considerably stronger than you," Melanie said. "I could probably take you on my own, but with my sister and Raven on my side, I could decimate you in a second."

Ah, so that was what was going on.

"So that's how it is," Yang said. She stopped fighting. "That just means I'll have to crush you faster than they can help you."

Flames spread through Yang's body. She was going to push her semblance to the limit and obliterate her in a single strike. "If Raven wants to know something, she can ask me herself."

* * *

"... is what she said," Militia finished.

"If you survive the next hit you'll win," Raven said. "I'm starting to understand how her semblance works."

She watched as Melanie dove out of the way of the devastating punch her spawn delivered.

Melanie didn't manage to completely avoid it. Next to Raven, Militia screamed.

"Damage?" Raven asked. She had just managed to isolate them from the rest of the audience, so that they wouldn't hear the scream.

"Her right arm has been crushed," Militia said. "I've cut the connection so that the pain doesn't bounce between us."

Raven removed her space alterations. "Can you still communicate?"

"Yes."

"Tell her to drag the kid outside of the ring. She won't be able to resist."

"I'll try," Militia, or rather Melanie, said.

Melanie dragged an uncooperative Yang outside of the ring with only her left arm and the match was called.

"She's strong," Militia said. "Even stronger than before."

"She's learned a little bit of focus," Raven said. "She might make a worthwhile investment."

"Oh? You're already trying to act like this was your plan all along? Are you going to say you saved her on the train because of her potential too?"

Raven yawned. "I can still disembowel you whenever I want to."

"I wonder how long that'll be the case."

"So you think you'll be able to defeat me someday? That's somewhat funny."

"You said so yourself, didn't you?"

"I said your powers would be somewhat comparable to mine. As in much lesser. Looking at things realistically, I am, and will always be, undefeatable."

* * *

Yang made her way back to the stands. She barely had the energy to move, so finally collapsing in her chair was a relief.

"I didn't expect that," Weiss said.

"Neither did I," Yang said. "She had help."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a little complicated and I don't have the energy to explain. Suffice it to say, I shouldn't have let them get to my head. If I fought normally, I probably would have won."

"I doubt that," Weiss said. "I saw what happened. She was playing around with you. You should consider yourself lucky that you managed to get a hit in."

"Maybe," Yang said. The answer to their overwhelming power was clear. Raven was interfering. If she was half as powerful as Qrow made her out to be, there was no way Yang could have won.

"My lien..." Winter moaned. "You guys were so confident I didn't even hesitate."

"Take it as a learning experience," Weiss said. "And never gamble again."

"I remember beating you at gambling."

"Cards. Not gambling. We should get something to eat."

Winter continued sulking throughout lunch. Yang followed her example, while keeping an eye out for Raven.


	28. Chapter 26 - Day one - Blake vs Adam

It was finally Blake's turn.

She went out and met her opponent.

It was him after all.

"Adam," she said.

"Blake."

"Why are you here?"

"To take you back."

The timer counted down, but they weren't ready to fight just yet.

"That's not the only reason, is it? I know too much. If you can't take me back, what will you do?"

"I would prefer it if it didn't come to that."

Blake drew her sword.

"You replaced the weapon we gave you?"

"I did."

"With one that looks like mine."

"Don't misunderstand. This is simply the kind of weapon that suits me best." She held it tighter. With how little practice she had with it, she wasn't sure if it would serve her any better than her previous weapon, but she needed to see how it would do in a real combat situation.

"I won't hold back." Adam said. "If I win, you come with me."

"If I win, you and me will destroy" She had to bite her tongue to keep herself from saying the name. "our organization from the inside."

"Sounds like the outcome is the same regardless of who wins. You'll come with me."

"So give up."

"I can't do that."

"Then it isn't the same."

"Even if you win, I won't honor our agreement."

That was unexpected. "We have a problem then. I guess I won't be going with you."

"You will. One way or another. How many of your friends do you think I'll need to kill before you come quietly?"

"I don't buy it. You've seen the kind of people who go to this school. You know you can't win."

"I've seen kids."

"Kids who are stronger than you."

"They still won't fight to kill."

"I will."

With that, Blake lunged at him. She knew what had to be done. In the end, she had to protect her new life and friends.

Their blades clashed and he overpowered her, pushing her back. Blake quickly grabbed her sword with both hands to meet his next strike.

That time she held him back. She needed to thank Velvet for that.

He quickly disengaged and slashed at her side. Blake used a clone to absorb it and slashed at him in return.

"You've gotten better," he said. He reversed his grip on his weapon and hit her in the abdomen with the hilt. Then, he swung overhead and Blake had no way of dodging, except for another thing she learned from Velvet.

She shot her aura into the ground, which moved her back just enough that his blade only grazed her cheek.

It stung. Did he actually manage to pierce her aura under such circumstances?

Blake quickly shot an aura blade at him in an attempt to slow him down, but he met it, then sheathed his sword, absorbing the force.

Blake knew that move all too well. She never imagined she would be at the receiving end.

She quickly dodged to the side, but the end of his aura blade caught her, pushing her back with incredible force.

Then, he came for her. Blake didn't have time to use a clone. She didn't have time to think.

Before she could even flinch, he had sunk his sword to the hilt in her chest.

It didn't hurt, Blake thought as her knees gave out.

Dying didn't hurt at all.

* * *

The glass Cinder was holding fell from her grip and shattered.

"That idiot," she said. It was all wrong.

She saw Ruby Rose pulling on the arm of a man next to her, begging him to do something, while he just shook his head.

She knew who arranged for that fight to happen. Cinder couldn't allow Blake Belladonna to die.

Just as she rose from her seat, she heard some woman with a wide-brimmed hat in front of her exclaim "Holy fucking shit."

Indeed.

Cinder wasn't one to use profanity for no reason, but she agreed entirely.

"Someone dying wasn't unexpected," a girl next to that woman said.

"It wasn't," the woman said. "Coming back to life was."

What was she...

The girl rose to her feet and pulled the sword out of her own chest.

Her black aura was glowing wildly around her. Actually, maybe glowing was the wrong word. It looked more as if it was absorbing the light around it.

Blake, with her hair blowing up in the air, holding a sword that glowed with dark aura was a formidable sight indeed.

She launched herself like a feral animal at Adam, taking him with her and slamming into the wall of the arena. Then she seemed to remember she was holding a weapon, so she swung it, making a massive gash into his chest.

"Berserk." the woman in front muttered.

"What does that mean?" Cinder found herself asking her.

"She's sacrificed her sanity for the sake of obtaining more power," the woman said. "Or maybe she has so much power going through her body she can't hang on to it. I'm sure you're familiar with both situations."

What a strange thing to say. Well, at least Blake was going to survive. Adam, Cinder couldn't care less about.

* * *

"Do you remember anything?" the Beacon nurse asked Blake after she woke up.

"I remember Adam driving a blade into my heart," Blake said. "I'm not really sure how I survived that."

"You didn't just survive. You won."

"What do you mean?"

"You won. Completely. He barely survived."

"Are you messing with me? I didn't even counterattack."

The nurse showed a recording of the match to Blake.

"I'm guessing you don't remember that." She said.

"I don't. I'm still wondering if you had this fabricated in order to deceive me. Not that you have any reason to."

"You went completely out of control. Just like last time."

"Last time?"

"When you were sick, there was nothing else we could have done, but for some reason you were instantly better one morning. When we came around to check up on you, you were not in a very cooperative mood. We sedated you and gave you another dose of the same drug miss Schnee gave you."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"I wonder myself. Oh well. For now, go watch the next match and be glad you're my first patient to walk away after a blade to the heart."

Blake decided to follow her advice. On her way out, a hand grabbed her from one of the beds.

Adam's chest was covered in bandages. Did she really do all of that?

He pushed himself up and the machines he was hooked up to started beeping loudly.

"You won," he said in what was barely a whisper. "I'll take you back and do my best to reintegrate you with us. That's the best I have to offer. Meet me at midnight."

He collapsed back into the bed. The machines continued beeping. The nurse pushed Blake out of the tent and got to work.

* * *

Back on the stands, a woman caught Blake's attention. She was holding a wide-brimmed hat over her face, trying to hide it and beckoning Blake to come over.

"Here's something useful." She whispered. "You know how when there's an attack coming your way and you can't really block it without being all weird and bending your elbows unnaturally? Take a step back. Parry. Take a step forward. Thrust. It might literally be the simplest move ever, but I've killed hundreds of people with it."

"Should I report you as a mass murderer?" Blake asked.

"I just gave you the most valuable technique a light swordsman can learn. You should be more grateful. Besides, who are you going to report?"

Before Blake could even blink, the woman was gone. Disappeared in front of her very eyes.

Well, that was only the second weirdest thing she'd seen all day, so she decided to leave it be. She had enough things to worry about.

Raven reappeared once Blake was gone.

"You know, for someone who pretends to be a ruthless psychopath, you can be pretty considerate." Melanie said.

"I need that girl alive," Raven said. "I'm giving her a better chance, is all. She clearly needs it."


	29. Chapter 26 - Day one - Cinder vs Ruby

It was finally Ruby's turn. The sun was starting to set and she didn't feel like that made her chances any better. At least with some luck, she would be able to position herself so that the sun would be in Cinder's eyes. And Qrow was going to be there. Although, he was pretty useless when he was supposed to save Blake.

"About Blake," she said.

"I overestimated her former partner's mental stability. I am truly sorry." Cinder said.

"Not an excuse."

"I shouldn't be blamed for the actions of a third party."

"You made it happen."

"And feel sorry for it. If I had known what would happen, I wouldn't have done it."

Perhaps allowing Cinder to do whatever she pleased was the wrong decision after all.

Ruby decided it would probably be for the best if she went to Ozpin after this. Maybe her organization would continue without Cinder, but for now, Cinder was a bigger threat.

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and Cinder picked up a sword from outside the ring. She definitely wasn't going to fight seriously, but Ruby didn't particularly want her to.

Ruby approached cautiously and swung at her. Cinder blocked and came in close.

With a long weapon like Ruby's, Cinder definitely had the advantage. Maintaining an appropriate distance would be a pain, so Ruby decided to just roll with it and fight at close range. Her weapon was big enough so that she could block effectively even when close up.

She waited for Cinder to slip up, then started her own series of attacks, forcing Cinder to dodge backwards.

Then she shot her rifle, but Cinder blocked it with her hand, then went on the offensive.

"That was a little dangerous," Ruby said while falling back. "You used that move when we first met."

Cinder shrugged and went in closer.

Her technique with a sword was certainly subpar, Ruby thought. It made her wonder what Cinder's true way of fighting was. Well, it's not like she wanted to find out.

Ruby reversed her momentum and kicked Cinder in the chest, then swung her scythe around with all of her strength behind it, only to be stopped just before hitting by Glynda's telekinesis.

"Well that was disappointing," Cinder said. "She must be getting paranoid after letting that many people get hurt."

Ruby's win was announced over the stadium.

"I guess," Ruby said.

"So, I said I'd tell you something good if you won," Cinder said. "I'm not really happy with accepting that as a win, but whatever. I was going to say it either way. I lied to you when I said I had nothing to do with your mother's death. Actually, I was the one who did it."

"By did it, you don't mean..."

"Yep. Pulled the trigger, so to speak. If you want to find out more, make sure I don't die."

With that, Cinder raised her hand and fired off a fiery projectile faster than Ruby could react. It hit her squarely in the chest and exploded. Ruby felt her consciousness slip for a second.

When she regained her senses, Ruby found herself surrounded by people she didn't know. She was on the stands. There was a faint smell of smoke surrounding her, but much more worrying was the fact that the air around her was much hotter and drier than in was a few seconds ago. Back in the arena, she could see Cinder with the air around her shimmering from the heat and random flames shooting around her.

Then, Ruby saw Cinder's hand extend in her direction again.

So she didn't need Ruby after all. She lied about everything, didn't she?

Was it all just a game to her until the very end? Was Ruby just some source of entertainment for her until she was ready to carry out her real objective?


	30. Chapter 27 - Cinder vs the world

Weiss was too shocked to act. She knew she had to do something, but what? She saw Cinder's arm rise again, as if to attack Ruby and she knew she had to do something, but she couldn't think of anything that would work.

Her glyphs wouldn't hold against the kind of power that could take out Ruby in one hit.

But maybe a lot of them would have some effect. Unfortunately, she couldn't summon too many, since she still hadn't recovered all the aura she spent in her fight with Velvet.

"Shield of Winter," she heard from next to her just as she was about to summon her glyphs and suddenly her view was cut off by a wall of ice forming in front of the stands.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked her sister, who was standing up with an arm outstretched.

"Your job," Winter said. She was holding a large ice dust crystal in her other hand. "In an event like this, I guess I would be the only one not worn out from fighting."

"What are you talking about?" Weiss saw a few bright lights on the other side of the wall of ice, followed by a thunder-like crash, but the wall held.

"Someone has to do something. Might as well be me."

"What are you talking about?" Weiss couldn't comprehend what her sister was saying. What is more, she had a very sinister smile on her face.

"I **am** an A/1, you know."

Was she insane? Well, obviously, but not like this. "This isn't the time for your delusions. We're in real danger here. So is Ruby. So is everyone."

"Clear the stands," Winter told Weiss.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Winter warrior," Winter said and the dust crystal started turning into ice and flowing over Winter's skin. She bit off the rest of the lollipop she had been sucking on and said, "Sword of winter" and a something started forming around the stick that was left. It wasn't a massive extravagant weapon like Weiss expected, but a simple bastard sword.

"Also, try to protect people with your semblance," Winter told Weiss and jumped. The ice shield made an opening for her and closed back up.

Weiss turned to Qrow. "I don't suppose I can ask you to try to keep her alive."

Qrow got up and felt the wall of ice. "In a fight like this, the best I can do is get in the way."

"What does that mean?"

"You don't fight fire with shapeshifting. You fight it with ice. Or wind. Or water. Or something that can actually challenge it. I wouldn't even get close. She might."

"You have no idea what you're talking about. She's weak and an idiot. She'll get herself killed for no reason."

"She is just powerful enough that dragging her away would be a pain. Doing it in front of the enemy would be downright suicide for the both of us. I know how you feel, but for now the best thing we can do is wait and see how things play out. There are much better suited people for saving her than me."

"I'll go find them then." Weiss got up, but Yang grabbed her sleeve.

"Winter's biggest weakness is that she can't spend too long fighting because of the cold, right? With this heat and that little ice around her, doesn't she actually stand a chance?"

"She isn't clueless," Blake chimed in. "From what I've seen, she has at least some fighting instincts that serve her well. She'll hold out until someone stronger comes to help her out."

"About time," Qrow said, looking up. Glynda Goodwitch flew up and over the rim of Winter's wall of ice. "I could see up her skirt," he commented and was promptly punched by Yang.

"That's the strongest woman in all of Vale," Qrow said, rubbing his jaw. "If she can't do it, no one can."

Weiss fell back in her seat. She felt utterly powerless, but she knew there was nothing she could do.

Or maybe there was.

"Let's help clear the stands," she said quietly and got up again.

* * *

A figure with armor that looked like it was made of ice descended in front of Cinder.

"I take it that was your doing," Cinder said, pointing at the stands, still covered by the ice.

Talking was unnecessary, but it was still a good way to waste time, so Cinder didn't really mind. She watched Roman's capture, so she had a pretty good idea of who that was.

"It was," Winter Schnee said. "What do you think? With something like that no one will be able to look inside, so we can just slack off until more forces arrive."

While Cinder had nothing against that plan, she wanted to get a little warmed up before the real fight began. "Actually, I think I'll test that armor of yours," she said and prepared a ball of explosive fire.

"It's not the armor you should worry about," Winter said and raised her hand in the air. "Shield of Winter, return." The ice around the stands flew towards her and compacted into a large kite shield on her left arm.

"That level of compression isn't normal," Cinder said.

"Shh," Winter said with a finger in front of where her lips should be. "You never know who might be listening."

Cinder fired her fireball and Winter blocked it with her shield. Surprisingly, she emerged unharmed. A few seconds later, the fire that fell to the ground from the explosion died out.

Cinder smiled. Maybe she would provide some entertainment after all.

* * *

Glynda entered the arena filled with determination. This entire thing was going to stop.

Or so she thought when she remembered that that same woman managed to fight her off under much worse circumstances.

Even worse, there was an unknown element on the battlefield again.

Glynda quickly gathered the weapons outside of the arena and sent a barrage of them at the enemy.

Cinder moved out of the way, but the girl with ice armor stood in her way. They exchanged a blow and the armored one defended herself with her shield, then attacked with her sword.

Cinder managed to avoid it and launched another attack.

They seemed to be pretty evenly matched.

Glynda continued her attack, but the weapons just bounced off of the enemy. Her semblance alone wasn't nearly enough to penetrate a strong aura.

Maybe her years of fighting nothing but Grimm were catching up to her.

She looked for something bigger and saw that the stands nearest to her were already evacuated.

That would do. She uprooted a large chunk and sent it at Cinder.

Cinder saw it and sent a fiery projectile its way, reducing it to minor debris.

Her offensive power was certainly something to behold. Tier one at least, and she knew how to use it.

First things first, Glynda decided that it was about time to get rid of that girl in ice armor.

She carefully approached and said, "Listen, an opponent like this is too much for you. You should get out of the way."

"This is an elemental battle, telekinetic," the girl said. "It'll be you that's in the way."

Just as she said that, another of Cinder's projectiles hit her shield.

"You dare?" Glynda said to her. That girl was no older than eighteen. No matter their situation, it was unforgivable for her to talk in such a way to her elder.

The girl started running ahead. "Not one of your students," she shouted back. "Support me if you can. Run if you can't."

That little... girl. Glynda caught herself before she thought something nasty. She was just a little overconfident. Nothing too serious. If she took one bad hit, she would back off.

But still, Glynda couldn't think of a way of actually hurting the enemy.

Well, there was one. She looked around and saw that not many civilians were, left. However, most of her students would see it.

On the other hand, maybe seeing it would drive the message that this is a serious situation and they should get out of harm's way through their thick skulls.

Having made her decision, she mentally searched the area where she stashed it, and then summoned her combat gear.

"We'll see who's in the way." She muttered under her breath.

* * *

Cinder immediately noticed the change in Glynda's attitude.

So she was going to take this seriously after all.

Glynda reached out and soon a strange sword and armor arrived. She put her riding crop away and grabbed the sword while the armor fitted itself over her. Then the sword's blade fell apart into sections, connected by wires. It looked like a whip more than a sword.

So it was going to be soldier Glynda fighting, not the teacher. That was exactly the way Cinder wanted it.

Glynda swung her sword-whip and it curved at the last second, grazing Cinder's shoulder.

At the same time, Winter attacked from the other side.

This wasn't going to do. The brat was useful in getting Glynda to fight seriously, but she was starting to get pretty annoying.

Time to get rid of her. Cinder focused her power inwards and increased her flames to stage three. At stage three, her attacks could blow a bullhead, or even an airship, out of the sky.

With everything she showed so far, the girl should survive it.

Glynda realized the difference immediately, but was too slow to stop it. The fireball hit Winter Schnee squarely in the chest and exploded with enough force to blow apart most armored vehicles.

The girl hit the outside rim of the arena and showed no signs of getting up.

Well, that was one problem dealt with. Cinder focused on Glynda, who swung her weapon with even more force and determination.

Unfortunately for her, at this point, she wouldn't be able to do much. That sword-whip thing would melt the second it came close.

Or so Cinder thought until she felt the metal dig into her skin. She thought she could catch it and destroy it, but apparently, a supersonic weapon with a powerful semblance pushing behind it might have been a little too much.

With the length of that sword-whip, it was a wonder Cinder didn't lose her hand.

Kind of disappointing, really.

Well, she might as well kick it up to stage four.

She had higher expectations of Vale's strongest semblance.

* * *

Weiss quietly snuck down to where Winter had collapsed. She was surprised to find that her sister was conscious.

"Winter?" Weiss asked. Her sister had blood dripping down the side of her face.

"I told you I had something," Winter managed to say, while fighting back the urge to cough because of the blood coming out of her mouth.

"Yeah, you had something," Weiss conceded. "Now leave it to the professionals."

The professionals were currently destroying the arena. At the highest part of the stands, though, she saw that a fleet of bullheads and airships had assembled over the arena. Ironwood stood on top of one, along with a small army of his men, with weapons pointed at the arena.

Even if by some miracle, Cinder managed to defeat Glynda, the moment she did, it would be game over for her.

Weiss took Winter into her hands and used a glyph to fly them on top of Ironwood's airship.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked Winter.

"I think I'll go take a shower and change," Winter said.

This girl's priorities. "Just go."

Winter stepped down from the edge, as if the drop didn't bother her at all.

Weiss went over to Ironwood and asked him where he wanted her.

"Just go where the rest of your teammates are. You'll know when you're needed."

Weiss spotted Yang, Blake and Qrow and went over to them.

Cinder Fall, if that was even her name, would not get away.

* * *

Glynda felt like she was getting the upper hand. That was when the enemy's fires increased significantly again.

So she had the power to make herself stronger. It didn't really matter. Glynda swung Razorfang, but Cinder moved away, pushing herself away with a torrent of flames in the opposite direction, then, with what amounted to a small explosion, she propelled herself into an attack.

She was using her fires to enhance her movements. Unexpected. Glynda tried to swing at her again, but Cinder ducked and continued flying at Glynda.

She was powerful. At this point, she might as well be an S/0.

How ridiculous that such a person could exist and be on the wrong side.

Cinder threw an explosive at Glynda and Glynda tried to shield herself with the sand from the ground, but wasn't able to block it completely. She fell back into the burning ground.

Wait, burning ground? Glynda looked around and for the first time noticed that with every attack, Cinder had gained ground. The entire arena and parts of the stands had fires dancing over them.

The heat was starting to become unbearable, even with aura. The air was hot and burned her lungs. She couldn't let this go on much longer. Especially if it was a setup for a stronger attack.

Well, she did have something that would probably deal with both the increasing fires and Cinder, but she was hesitant to use it in front of such a large audience.

Then again, maybe it was about time. What good would powers like hers do if she never got to use them.

Glynda took a second to concentrate her mind and activated her 「Telekinetic Blast」 evolution.

It was a simple one. Akin to a shockwave, it would throw everything around her away from her. A single pulse destroyed what was left of the stands and the arena, revealing the concrete beneath the sandpit.

Cinder was thrown back, but she used an explosion to move herself forward.

Futile. Glynda narrowed the angle and increased the intensity, making it so that her evolution was entirely focused on Cinder.

For a second, it looked as though Cinder was smiling. Then she was blown away. Glynda couldn't let such a chance get away. She swung her sword, but Cinder altered her course in mid-air with a small explosion. Two could play at that game, Glynda used her semblance to alter the course of her whip, catching Cinder and wrapping around her.

It was over.

Or so she thought. The fires around Cinder's aura decreased for a moment and then a massive wing of fire and light grew out of her back and stretched up into the air, ruining Glynda's beloved weapon.

She still had another power-up remaining. Cinder rushed at Glynda with renewed vigor, a massive torrent of flames behind her, scorching the earth and everything behind it.

Well, it was irrelevant. Glynda hit her with another blast of her evolution, which stopped Cinder in place and gradually started pushing her back.

Then, Cinder slowed down, stopped, and then started to slowly move towards Glynda in spite of the immense force pushing against her.

Even staying in place against that kind of force would turn a normal human into a pancake. She must have put a lot of aura in front to lessen the blow. She would be very vulnerable to an attack from behind, but at this point, that wasn't an option.

Well, Glynda decided it might be time for her to start getting serious. She put all of her concentration into beating her back and Cinder started slowing down.

Glynda was glad the arena was outside of the city. If it wasn't, she wouldn't have been able to go all out like this.

Then, the wing of light on Cinder's back lit up even brighter and she started breaking through again.

Ridiculous.

It was like nothing she did made a difference. Glynda let her arms fall down. She felt a smile spread on her face. So there was a monster that could challenge even her? It was beautiful.

Cinder shot at her and grabbed Glynda by the neck.

"How much?" Glynda asked. Cinder's grip tightened and Glynda felt and unpleasant warmth go into her skin. "How much of your power did you use?"

"A little over three percent," Cinder said. Glynda believed her.

The warmth at Glynda's neck spread to her entire body and head. It was so hot. So terribly hot. Like being in a furnace. She couldn't think.

"What are you?" she managed to say.

"Type three," Glynda heard before falling unconscious.

* * *

As he watched the enemy throw Glynda's unconscious body back, Ironwood gave the order to fire.

A hundred rifles went off at the same time, but the target barely reacted.

Could it be that their munitions burned up before reaching her? No, such a thing wasn't possible. Much more likely, the enemy's aura protected her.

"Bullheads, fire at will," he relayed to his soldiers. He initially planned on capturing the target, but such destructive power couldn't be allowed to live.

In response to the bombardment, the target fired a slash of fire that crashed into a bullhead near him.

He watched in amazement as the bullhead exploded into two, with a rain of fire falling from it. The two halves split apart and crashed into the ground, leaving behind only a cloud of smoke in their original location.

"At this point, I think the only ones who could give her a fight would be us," a huntress-in-training near him said. It was Weiss Schnee.

Ironwood couldn't allow it. If hunters got involved, they might consider letting her live.

"No need," he said. "Penny, I will rely on you for this task. Strike to kill."

"What?" he heard from nearby. He saw another huntress-in-training. Ruby Rose.

"I have no time to entertain your childish fantasies," Ironwood said. "What needs to be done will be done." He turned to Penny, who still hadn't left for some reason. "GO!"

Penny's face was completely blank as Ruby watched her leave.

"It's a suicide mission," Ruby finally found her voice.

"What was never alive can never die," Ironwood said a cryptic phrase. "Now watch. With your speed, you may be the only one capable of seeing the battle ahead. If it looks like Penny might lose, tell us." He turned to another soldier. "Is the rest of my army ready to mobilize?"

"Yes, sir."

"I want them here five minutes ago. We will crush this little rebellion here."

They wouldn't crush anything. Ruby already knew that Cinder was nothing more than a figurehead. Cutting off the head of the snake would only lead to further chaos.

Ruby didn't tell him any of that. She watched the duel.

Penny propelled herself at Cinder, who stood there, ready to receive her. She had a large number of what Ruby could only imagine were small suns behind her, all of which she fired at Penny.

Penny cut through them and flew closer. She was much faster than Ruby could have ever imagined. By the time Cinder's explosives detonated, she was already out of their range, flying as fast as she could to their mistress.

At that point, Ruby felt a knot in her stomach. Penny reached Cinder and they exchanged a single attack.

And Ruby couldn't see Penny anymore in the flash of light that resulted. When it subsided, she saw her again, only there was something wrong. Where Penny's head should have been, there was nothing. Where it should have connected to her body, there was only metal. Why?

She didn't have time to ponder on it, as Cinder fired off another explosion and after a second flash of light, there was nothing but bits of metal and fire in the air left of Ruby's friend.

Ruby wasn't quite sure what possessed her to jump off the bullhead, but she was sure of one thing. She was not going to let any more of her friends die.

If that meant fighting Cinder Fall on her own, then so be it.

However, when she fell down, she saw a small red line appear on Cinder's belly. It quickly widened and allowed for what looked like a very long, greyish sausage to fall out.

For a second, Ruby wondered why Cinder was carrying around sausages in her belly, or why she had a pocket there, but then she understood.

Cinder's wing of light and fire folded in on itself and disappeared. She fell down to one knee and held out her arm to support herself, but something else fell out of her.

She looked up with strong, determined eyes, and then she saw Ruby.

And her eyes softened.

"If I die, you'll never know what happened to your mother," she croaked out, her mysterious and alluring voice lost.

"Rose, get out of the way," she heard from above. She saw Ironwood's flagship, with its main cannon pointed right at them.

At that point, Ruby didn't even care if what Cinder was saying was true. Much more concerning was the fact that if they killed Cinder, it would mean her organization would be practically lost. Being close to the leader was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Helping her meant that Ruby would have to become a criminal, but that was a small price. She told Oobleck that she wanted to be a huntress in order to save people and that was still true. No matter how she looked at it, saving Cinder was the choice that saved the most people. She wouldn't be able to become a huntress anymore, but that didn't matter.

Really, she wanted to be a hero first and huntress second.

Becoming Cinder's right-hand-woman would put her in a position to save a lot more people than sitting around in school for another three years.

There also always existed the possibility Cinder's way was the correct way and that she would end up spilling more blood if she stayed with Beacon. Oobleck's words still rung in her head whenever she closed her eyes.

Even if she stayed in Beacon, the day would come when she would be forced to kill. That was practically a certain thing, judging by the fact that Cinder was about to be executed before her very eyes. At least with her things would be uncertain and there was always the possibility that Ruby would be able to turn them around and use them as a force of good.

Of course, those were all things she came up with later in order to justify her actions. In reality, she didn't have time to think. All she could do was to save the person right in front of her.

She grabbed Cinder and ran as fast as her legs could carry them.

* * *

"Stay here," Qrow said.

"Like hell I will," Yang said, trying to follow him, but his firm grip on both of her shoulders held her in place.

"I am a huntsman and you lot aren't. I can get away with defending her, but you will be expelled on the spot and then arrested. Or worse."

"And you won't?" Yang asked.

"Hunters are above the law. We can get away with a lot. If Ruby had graduated, there wouldn't even be a problem."

"You will be branded a traitor, while we will get away with lighter punishments," Weiss said.

"You are too weak to make a difference."

Saying that, Qrow transformed into a large bird and flew to where Cinder had been standing. He transformed back and drew a line on the ground with his sword.

"Anyone who passes this line will have to deal with me," he said.

"Out of the way," Ironwood said, drawing his sword. He sure was quick in leaving that ship of his. "Or do you intend to go rogue?"

"Neither. I will simply not allow the senseless killing of children in my presence." His sword transformed into a scythe. He was serious about fighting what amounted to a small army.

"And what if I call your bluff?"

"Then you'll have to deal with a lot more than him," Ozpin said from behind Ironwood. Team CFVY was at his back. Yatsuhashi was holding the unconscious Glynda.

"You all did nothing," Ironwood said. He sounded more disappointed than angry.

"I don't condone senseless murder," Ozpin said. "Neither did you, once upon a time."

"When did you have that change of heart?" Ironwood said and grabbed Ozpin by his robes.

"Do not forget your place. I could have you expelled from the city by the end of the day." Ozpin's voice was ice cold. Ironwood let him go and backed up.

"And what will you do when she comes back and uses her powers to burn your school to the ground? The entire city even?"

Weiss used a glyph to fly to where they were.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" she asked. "Because I'm sure the fifty thousand people we just evacuated would like to know what is going on. Not to mention all the people who saw a wing of light over the horizon."

Ozpin and Ironwood both turned to look at her and then back at each other.

"We will continue this at a later time," Ironwood said and turned to his soldiers. "Gather what's left of Penny and move out. Old friend, I'll leave the media to you."

Then, he himself took what looked like an arm and paused. "Is Glynda okay?"

"Heat exhaustion," Ozpin said. "She'll be fine."

Ironwood put the arm in front of his ship, which had just landed and went to pick up another part.

"Why **didn't** you do anything?" Weiss asked CFVY, more specifically, Velvet. She could have stopped all of this.

"I wanted to see how it would play out," Coco said.

"Glynda wouldn't have let me," Velvet said. "That was the first time I saw her with a look like that on her face."

"So why didn't you step in afterwards?"

"You seem to be overestimating my teammate's power," Coco said. "She's strong, but she's not that strong. That woman beat Glynda without even trying."

"Why do you think she didn't even try?" Weiss asked.

"Because wings usually come in pairs," Coco said. "That, and I can read lips." That sounded like a useful skill. "Velvet may be ridiculously powerful, but there's always bigger fish."

"You're underestimating me," Velvet said. "I probably could have won, but I didn't want the fight to escalate to the level where it would risk the city."

With all the things Weiss saw today, that was very easy to believe.

"Says the girl who can't read lips," Coco said.

Weiss left them to bicker amongst themselves and spotted Winter in new clothes back at the arena.

She was tossing a small ball up and down. The moment Ironwood saw her, he marched right over to her and demanded that she give it to him.

"Nah," Winter said. "Finders keepers."

"Do you have any idea what it is you're playing with?" Ironwood asked, his entire body shaking and his voice uncertain. Very suspicious.

"Nope, do you?" Winter said and threw it higher. Ironwood attempted to snatch it from her but Winter was faster. "I mean you're some bigshot general, right? You'd know about something like this, wouldn't you?"

He looked like he was ready to take it by force, but Weiss decided to step in. "I'd like to hear this as well."

He looked around nervously and said in an almost inaudible voice, "That is Remnant's first artificial soul." Artificial soul? Did that mean that Winter was playing around with Penny's soul? Suddenly Weiss felt overwhelming disgust with her sister, even if at the time she couldn't have known what she was doing.

People really were disgusting. She thought Ruby was different, but as it turns out she was just as bad as the rest of them.

If that was the case, then what about Weiss herself? She shook her head and cut that trail of thought off just in time to see Winter catch the ball and toss it at Ironwood.

"Was that so hard?" Winter said.

With the soul back in his possession, Ironwood finally must have felt confident enough to get angry. "Listen here, young lady, do you have any idea how much trouble you're in? What do you think your supervisor is going to do when I tell him you were down here having fun while on sick leave? What do you think your father's going to do? And don't even get me started on jumping into that mess in spite of knowing full well that you didn't stand a chance. What were you thinking?"

Winter looked confused for a moment. "Yes, absolutely nothing, and my father knows me far too well to get angry over something like that. As for the fight, I was trying to help because the rest of you clearly couldn't be bothered to. Now go put your toy back together or something. I'd like to see how the rest of this plays out."

"You're going back to Atlas," Ironwood said. "I have enough to deal with without you here causing God knows what kind of havoc on top of the White Fang, that fire woman, the hero of the last battle going rogue and it's still the first bloody day! You are going home whether you like it or not."

Weiss wondered how Winter managed to get herself a reputation as a troublemaker with the Atlas military. Knowing that she was a walking environmental disaster, it probably wasn't hard.

"Don't wanna."

"I order you, a citizen of Atlas, as a General of Atlas, to go home."

"We're not in Atlas. You have zero authority here." And her reputation was going to get a lot worse.

"Are you trying to piss me off? You could be charged with treason upon your return for not obeying my commands."

"Are you sure you want to do that? What do you think is going to happen if my father turns on the news one morning and sees that a Schnee has been charged with treason? You might need to find a new career after a stunt like that."

Weiss started to realize how bad things really were. Her sister was nonchalantly threatening a general.

"She means nothing by it," she said quickly. "She'll go back home quietly." She turned to Winter. "Right?"

"Weiss?"

"He's right," Weiss said. "I don't want to see you in any more danger." Winter was out of her depth and judging by the way she was acting, she hadn't realized it yet.

"I'm not in danger."

"Do you have any idea how lucky you were to survive what happened just now?"

"Luck is my best stat," Winter said. "But I get it. Me staying here would make you worry and I don't want that. I'll leave."

Weiss wondered if she should apologize. Probably, but she wasn't going to.

"Now that we've dealt with the problem at hand, do you need me for anything else?" Weiss asked Ironwood.

"No. You're free to go. I will interrogate you and your teammates after the tournament. For now, rebuilding the arena takes priority."

"You're continuing the tournament?"

"The show must go on, Miss Schnee. Now is precisely the time when we must not let ourselves show any weakness."

"Well, have fun with that. I have to fight first thing in the morning, so I'll take my leave."

Weiss motioned to the rest of her team that they were leaving and they all exited the arena, though there weren't any doors anymore.

All's well that ends well. It may not have ended well, and it may not be over at all, but Weiss was done. For now.

* * *

 **AN:**

I'm trying out **bolding** text to add emphasis, since there are a few things here and there where the intonation is vague and readers might get the wrong meaning from it. I'll try it out for a couple of chapters. I would appreciate some feedback.

Oh, and there's also 「this」. I might use it for abilities and the like. Or not.


	31. Chapter 28 - Consequences

"Let me down somewhere," Cinder said and Ruby complied.

The sewers of Vale might not be the most pleasant of places, but Ruby was sure they wouldn't be found here.

She put Cinder down gently on the floor. She looked like she was in a lot of pain.

She also looked different. Ruby had never seen her like that.

"You look... old," she said. "Not really old, just older. Maybe mid-twenties."

Cinder groaned. Maybe there was a better time to ask than when she was holding her guts in. And failing to do so. "The horrors of not being able to light your own face in favorable angles," she said. "Really, this is the most vulnerable you're ever likely to see me."

"Why?"

"I need my semblance to be at stage zero for this to work. Basically, I'm suppressing it completely."

"What are you trying to do? Won't your aura heal you in a few of days?"

"Not fast enough," she said. "I have an evolution that allows me to heal instantly."

"Evolution?" Ruby asked. That was the first time she heard that term.

"You don't even know about evolutions? What am I to do with you? Is Beacon really that paranoid that they won't train their students properly?"

She wasn't explaining it either.

"Just look. You'll figure it out." Cinder said. "I would be very grateful if you could hold me down, by the way."

Ruby set her hands down on Cinder's shoulders, pushing her down.

"Harder," Cinder said. "I'll be trashing around like you wouldn't believe."

Maybe that was why she needed to be at stage zero, whatever that meant. Ruby put down her entire weight and suddenly, a bright fire erupted from the wound. Inhuman screams followed and Ruby redoubled her efforts to keep her immobile.

The fire quickly spread to Cinder's insides that were on the outside, burning through them and leaving behind only ash.

The way her screams echoed around was sickening. Ruby could barely handle looking at what was happening, but she couldn't look away either.

When all of the things that weren't supposed to be outside burned up, the fire concentrated on her wound, burning it inwards, and much to Ruby's surprise, revealing unharmed skin once they passed.

The flames flared up one final time at the last opening of the wound, and died out.

Cinder's heavy breathing filled the air. It was better than screams.

"What was that?" Ruby asked.

"Evolution 「Recreation」 from my 「Holy Phoenix」 semblance." Cinder said in a low voice. She sounded tired. "I hate it."

She brushed the ashes away from her stomach and sat up.

"Should you be doing that? You just recovered."

"I'm as good as new," Cinder said. "Just shaken up. It's a little painful."

Yeah, sure, a little. "Tell me about evolutions."

"It's in the name. Can you give me a minute?"

Ruby waited until Cinder's breathing calmed. It took five minutes.

"Like I said, it's in the name. An evolution is a byproduct of your semblance not knowing how to deal with a problem and exploding in a different direction. I guess sub-semblance would be better, but evolution's the word I learned."

Ruby didn't quite understand it, but Cinder's 「Recreation」 was a pretty interesting example.

"Okay," Cinder continued, "so, say you're stuck in a dark room and you need to see in order to get out. Your skin starts glowing. That's an evolution."

That actually made Ruby more confused. "How would my semblance of speed evolve into my skin glowing?"

"I haven't the slightest idea, but if it did, it would be an evolution."

"Why wouldn't I just use my aura to generate light?"

"Because it's an example. I can't come up with anything better. I suck at the whole explaining thing." She sighed. "Okay, think of it this way. A semblance is an expression of the soul, right? An evolution is an ability born out of need for something your semblance can't accomplish. It will probably relate to your semblance in some way, but it also might not. The reason why everyone isn't running around with a billion of them? The amount of willpower required to create one is so ridiculous most people don't get more than a couple in their entire lifetime."

Finally, she said something that made sense. "What does that last part mean? What does willpower have to do with it?"

Cinder sighed again. "We're going to be here all night, aren't we?

"All week if that's what it takes."

Cinder made another sigh, this one more dramatic than the rest. "Fine then. In order to get an evolution, you must go through a process called "reforging of the soul". I wasn't the one who named it. Anyway, it is a permanent change in your very being. To get one, you would have to alter the very core of your existence. That's the reason why in my example, I used an extreme situation. Those can change a person. For example, if you were fighting for your life for the first time, it's very possible that you would be willing to do anything to stay alive. That desire to survive will likely alter your way of thinking, and if you need something more in order to win, it just might create the perfect opportunity for an evolution to manifest. Of course, the next time you're in a similar situation, your way of thinking will already be different and you'll have the ability you were missing, so it isn't likely to happen again."

"I don't see what that has to do with willpower," Ruby said. At least she was starting to understand evolutions a little.

"By that, I was referring to a different way of obtaining one. It's called "brute-forcing" an evolution. That is probably what you'll have to do.

"Now that you know about them, you must be thinking that they are basically a source of free power. You aren't wrong. You should go ahead and get one. But the usual way doesn't work for you, does it? After all, you've been in combat quite a few times and haven't gotten one, so the odds of getting one now are very low. That's where brute-forcing comes in. You will need three things. The first is a goal. What do you want to accomplish? What do you need your new evolution to do? The second is the willpower required to force it to manifest. You will need to change yourself into someone who has that power. This is the catch. If you can't imagine yourself as someone with that power, you won't be able to become someone with that power. That's why you don't see a lot of omnipotence evolutions. The third is patience. Pretty self-explanatory. It won't happen immediately, but if you keep at it you will eventually get frustrated, angry and who knows what other emotions will be going through your head. When those feelings overflow, they will explode out of you and change you from the inside into a person with an evolution that can accomplish your goal."

There was a short silence. That was certainly a lot of information Ruby had no idea what to do with.

"I never said I wanted one, you know," Ruby said. She still didn't understand the actual process of getting one.

"I know. That was a purely theoretical exercise. What you do with it is up to you."

"Why don't they teach this at Beacon?"

"That is a very good question. My personal take is that Ozpin is afraid of creating a monster worse than the Grimm in that school of his. Take that as you will."

With people as strong as Velvet, Ruby could certainly understand why he would be cautious.

"Oh, and also, mentally insane people have a penchant for making evolutions. With the knowledge I just gave you and their unstable, easily altered minds, they could become a major threat overnight. That would be my guess for why you haven't heard of them outside of school."

Ruby actually wasn't really wondering about that.

"Speaking of school, what was all of that about? Why were you even undercover if you planned on blowing that cover the way you did?"

"Well, to begin with, Beacon's a bit of a mystery. No one knows whose side they are going to take. You could say I was testing the waters. I didn't really have a concrete mission being there and doing what I did today made sense in the grand scheme of things."

"Which is?"

"Well, there are a few things it accomplished, but the main thing is that we needed allies. I think I did okay."

Ruby wasn't all that sure, but for now, she decided to play along. "That's one way of putting it. You could have tried to be a little subtler."

"I knew you wouldn't make a decision unless I forced your hand. I'd say that gamble paid off."

"It very nearly didn't," Ruby said. If Cinder hadn't gotten injured, she might not have saved her.

"I had an exit strategy. Why did you save me?"

"Because I didn't want to see any more people die. You could say it was a lapse in judgement. There are still two things I'm a little concerned about."

"Just two?"

"Okay, two that I'm really concerned about."

"I'm all ears."

"Why would you go so far to recruit me?" Ruby asked.

"Because I want you on my side." Cinder replied as if it was obvious. Well, it was, but that wasn't the question.

"That's what I'm asking. Why do you want me to work with you badly enough to put yourself in danger?"

"Because you have silver eyes, I guess," she said.

"What does that mean? Ozpin said that as well and I don't get it. What does that have to do with anything?"

"If you believe the legends, they mark you as a warrior the Grimm fear so much, that they would not meet your eyes."

"That's not true," Ruby said. "I've looked Grimm in the eyes plenty of times."

"Of course it's not true," Cinder said. "But it is iconic. Most people probably don't realize it, but just by looking at you, they associate you with warriors of legend. Have you not noticed it? Ozpin making you the leader of your team without hesitation, even before that, he allowed you into his school two years ahead of schedule. Even beyond that, have you not noticed people being convinced by you more easily than they should have been? Even I was influenced to not attack you that day in the tower."

Of course, Ruby could think of many instances where it was true. She could also think of many where it wasn't. A certain pilot she wasn't completely sure survived their whole escapade came to mind. "Just because of some legend?"

"An instinct, if you will. It is ingrained into human culture that those with silver eyes should be more worthy of trust and respect than everyone else. You can learn to draw more attention to your eyes. You look away far too much when talking to people."

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but maybe Cinder had a point. She didn't really like to meet people's eyes.

Cinder's expression suddenly turned somber. "Your mother had them too. Seeing the life leave them still haunts my dreams. And nightmares."

Ruby didn't know how to react to that. If anything, she felt a little stunned. What could be an appropriate answer to a statement like that?

"Can you give me a short summary of what happened?" She said, her voice slightly hoarse, like she had forgotten the finer points of speaking.

"Well, I feel like this is neither the time, nor the place, but fine. She was on a mission to hunt me down. I got the upper hand. That's all there is to it. I'm not going to pretend that it isn't my fault that you grew up without a mother. She was just doing her job. I made the choice to kill her. A choice I probably wouldn't regret if not for her eyes."

There really was nothing to say. The final fantasies that Ruby held, that her mother might still be alive somewhere and was staying away in order to protect her, were completely shattered.

"Can I see her body?" She managed to say.

"I buried it. I don't know if that's a good idea. After all this time, you might be better off remembering her the way she was."

She may have a point. However, Ruby had seen enough empty graves with her mother's name on them. "At least promise to take me there."

"I promise."

Ruby actually believed her, even though she should know better by now.

"You said you had two things you were really concerned about. What's the second?" Cinder apparently had no intention of letting Ruby rest.

"It's an easy one," Ruby said. "Did you really **have** to kill my friend?"

"You have an awful tendency to call your acquaintances friends. And killed is a strong word."

"I had no idea Penny was a robot," Ruby said. "That doesn't excuse what you did."

"They backed her up this morning and putting another body together from replacement parts would be trivial. She'll be back on her feet by the end of the day. Also, she isn't a robot."

"What do you mean she isn't a robot? I saw her. She was just a pile of metal after you were done with her."

"Well then, story time it is. Let's hope a war doesn't break out while we're infodumping in the sewers." Was that a possibility?

Ruby sat down and made herself comfortable.

"About fifteen years ago, the Council of Remnant allowed a single project for each kingdom to bypass the age limit for experimentation on humans. The theory was that they would be able to amplify the semblances and aura of children to the point where by the time they are adults, they'll be incredibly powerful weapons. They rationalized with a growing Grimm threat which we all know isn't happening. With the Color War just finished, all four countries felt like they needed better weapons to fight one another with and to keep the general population docile. Anyway, Mistral tried to clone their new generation of witches. They were unsuccessful and their funding was cut. Vacuo tried their hands at genetic manipulation and promptly gave up when they realized they had no idea what they were doing.

"Vale went for a more traditional approach. They took children and gave them probably the most intensive training I've ever heard of. Everything, from torture, both physical and psychological, to using drugs on them and even gladiatorial combat between subjects. Fatalities were not unheard of. At around seven they were forced to make their first kill. They were very successful, as you've probably noticed in a certain girl born without the ability to speak."

"Neo is an operative of Vale?" Ruby asked. She still couldn't tie it all back to Penny, but she was too curious to not ask.

"Was. Roman broke her out before her training was complete."

"Why?"

"We're getting a little sidetracked, but fine. Vacuo hired a team to level the facility. Roman was a part of that team. When they realized that it was a building full of children, he had one of his rare moments of empathy, killed his entire team and tried to save them all. He got out with one, she chose to stick around and that's all I know."

So that was the story behind Neo? Interesting. "What about Velvet?"

"I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised. My information on the subject is limited to what Roman has told me."

"You could ask Neo."

"Neo, do you have any idea?"

A girl's face appeared in the darkness, slowly shook her head and disappeared.

Illusionist, huh? Cinder was probably never in any danger to begin with. For all that Ruby knew, that entire fight might not have actually happened.

"How long has she been with you?"

"Ever since Roman got got."

That wasn't as bad as it could have been. Ruby needed to worry only about a day's worth of things not being the way she remembered them. That was conveniently the time Cinder first mentioned Ruby's mother.

Well, in the grand scheme of things, that was mostly irrelevant.

"Please continue," Ruby said.

"Okay. Moving on to Atlas. The Schnee Dust Company were just getting into the weapons business and were the only ones with enough funding, so they spearheaded the project. They did things a little differently. Things started off with cybernetic implants and one thing led to another and you've already seen the final result."

"So you're saying she was a real person before she became... whatever that was?"

"Yes. How else would they be able to have an aura surround her?" Cinder paused. "Of course, when the council found out that they were essentially killing children en masse, they put a stop to it and now the SDC pretend to have achieved the impossible. You only need to sacrifice a human to get it. And a child too, or they can't adapt. Funny, really."

Ruby failed to see the humor in that situation. "How do you know all of this?"

"I have a contact in Atlas, as I'm sure you already know. The rest I pieced together from scraps here and there. I have an interest in history, and I especially like writing it."

Not exactly the most reliable of information, but Ruby realized she should have asked something much earlier. "I refuse to believe that everything that happened back there was for my sake. Didn't you say that you were going to lay low? That was obviously a lie, so how do I know you aren't lying now?"

"Well, I didn't want you to be prepared. But yes, there is more to it. I wanted to show our power to the world." Cinder said. "If some lowly terrorist takes out one of Atlas' and one of Vale's best, that's bound to cause a little disturbance, don't you think?"

"Why though?"

"Well, there was another reason that I can't share with you right now, but the main part of it is that we need people to wonder what's going on. We need them awake and aware. I want people to see that we live in a world where conspiracies exist."

"Oh, you're one of those people then." Ruby couldn't stop herself from saying. It just occurred to her that having seen her power firsthand, Ruby couldn't quite come up with a way to stop, confine, or otherwise neutralize Cinder.

"Yes, I am. And you know I'm right. After all, you wouldn't be here if you didn't."

"Yeah. The sewers of Vale truly bring a sense of accomplishment."

Cinder just smiled for a few seconds. "Let's get out of here then."

* * *

Weiss saw that she had a message from Winter. Curious, she opened it up.

 _Well, I'm about to get on the train home, but I thought it would be nice of your beautiful, benevolent, courageous and generous sister to give you a final gift. So I sent your car to the shop. It's being outfitted with a few things I thought you might find useful in the future. As for how I got the money for it, don't worry, I took out a loan._

That idiot.

Also, Weiss was entirely unsure of how Winter had managed to claim Weiss' car from the Beacon parking lot. When it came to doing incredibly stupid things, Winter's resourcefulness was truly admirable.

Maybe admirable was the wrong word for it. Weiss actually liked that car.

"So, in other news, my sister is now in debt for no reason whatsoever," Weiss announced to the room.

"Somehow I doubt that's a problem for her," Yang said.

They went back to watching Blake pack her things.

At least Weiss could tell with some certainty that idiocy was not exclusive to members of her family. Or maybe this was a sign that Weiss and Blake were related. Maybe she should search her hair for cat ears.

What was she even thinking about?

"How can I change your mind?" Weiss asked.

"You can't." Blake said without even looking up.

"You owe us an explanation," Yang said.

"I guess I do. I'm not really sure if I can say it well, but the gist of it is that I don't really have a reason to stay here anymore. I originally joined this school because I thought I could do good here, but now I feel like I can do more on my own. The White Fang may be rotten to the core, but in the end, they are my responsibility. If I can't make them change their ways, I'll destroy them."

"Do you really think you'd be able to do that?" Weiss asked. Was Blake always this overconfident?

"Ever since my fight with Adam, I've been feeling a little different. Powerful." He aura glowed around her. Weiss didn't really notice anything different about it. Could Blake be deluding herself?

"That doesn't mean you wouldn't benefit from staying here."

"Maybe, but I don't think the world will wait for me. Things need to happen."

"What is that supposed to mean? You're not really going out on vague reasoning like that, are you?"

"I still need to do something. Or are you going to tell me that there's no reason for me to worry? That nothing is wrong?"

"I don't think anyone would argue against that," Yang said. "Least of all Ruby. And if you think you can make a difference, who are we to stop you?"

"I'm going with or without your blessing, but I'm glad you understand," Blake said. Then, she looked at Weiss.

"I don't really care either way," Weiss said. "With Ruby gone, this team might as well not exist. Even if you don't leave, we'll tear each other apart in a matter of days."

"That's frighteningly realistic," Blake said. She closed her briefcase and stood up. "I guess this is goodbye then."

"If, by some odd turn of events, you happen to meet my sister, tell her to contact me," Yang said.

"Will do."

"See you around," Weiss said.

And then there were two.

* * *

In the courtyard, Blake met someone she didn't expect.

"I followed your aura signature," Ren said. "There's something I want you to know. You now have five butterflies. Don't waste the ones you have left."

"Are you trying to make up for your lack of knowledge by being cryptic?"

"Yes. There's a limit to what I can figure out."

"Thanks, I guess," Blake said. "Goodbye."

"Until we meet again," Ren said and went back towards the school.

A few seconds later, Adam emerged from the shadows. He was holding his side with one hand and had a pained expression that didn't suit him at all.

"You okay?" Blake asked.

"I've been better," he said. "You?"

"Perfectly fine."

"I could have sworn I stabbed you in the heart. It must have been a clone after all. I never did learn to properly fight against you. We were always on the same side."

Blake didn't know how to answer that, especially since she also could have sworn she should have died from that, so she decided to change the subject a little. "So, you admit you were trying to kill me?"

"Yeah. You know I'm no good at holding back. You were trying to kill me too."

"Two wrongs don't make a right. Apologize."

"Fine. I'm sorry."

"Now do it again, but this time like you mean it."

"No. Your turn."

"I regret my failed attempt to kill you," Blake said.

She actually did feel bad for going out of control like that, but wasn't ready to admit it.

"Are you ready to go?"

Blake looked back at Beacon's main building. She was going to miss it. "Yeah."

* * *

Weiss rolled over on her side. She was bored, but she couldn't sleep.

"Wanna fool around?" Yang asked from across the room.

"What?"

"Well, I don't know. Why not? We could both use some stress relief. No strings attached."

Weiss could think of quite a few reasons as to why that was a bad idea, including the fact that she would probably end up more stressed out as a result, but she didn't voice her concerns.

Because she was actually somewhat curious what Yang meant by "fooling around".

"Fine," she said.

"Well aren't you a romantic," Yang said and got up.

She walked over to Weiss's bed and leaned over it.

Too close. Weiss felt her entire body tense up, as if she was about to engage in battle.

Something soft rubbed against her lips. She opened her eyes and saw that it was Yang's finger.

"What?"

"I'm worried steam might start coming out of your ears if I do anything more," Yang said. "I've never seen a shade of red this deep on a living person." She smiled. "Oh, it got even better."

She was definitely making fun of her, Weiss thought.

"Look who's talking," she managed to untangle her tongue enough to say. Yang's face was also a deep shade of scarlet, along with little flames dancing on top of her head.

She didn't look like she was very experienced in the "purest form of love".

"Well, then, don't mind if I do," Yang said and lowered her head. Her lips brushed slightly against Weiss' and then she withdrew.

At some point, Weiss remembered she could breathe, so she quickly forced some air into her lungs and said, "Is that all?"

"I don't think you're ready for more," Yang said. Weiss could feel her hot breath against her skin. It wasn't a bad feeling.

Weiss pulled a lock of Yang's hair lightly, guiding her back down. Yang complied and lowered her lips to Weiss'.

At that point, Weiss decided to use her vast knowledge in kissing to her advantage, so she quickly licked Yang's lower lip. Yang's head shot upwards, banging against the bed above.

They were both silent for a second to see if it was going to fall down, while trying to contain their laughter.

When she was sure the danger had passed, Weiss smiled playfully at Yang, who responded in kind.

It really wasn't all that bad.

Yang bent down for more, but Weiss pushed her off. She couldn't let Yang conquer the heiress to the Schnee fortune in a single night, after all.

"You suck," Yang said and got off the bed. There was a suspicious burn mark on the bed above.

"I don't," Weiss said. "That's why you're mad."

"You don't suck." Yang corrected herself and stormed out, probably to vent her frustration onto something or someone.

Weiss went back to trying to sleep. That actually did relieve some stress. More importantly, she managed to get back at Yang for all those other times she tried to do things to her.

* * *

Glynda was on her third drink for the night.

"You know, I don't even remember the last time I lost," she said. "Do you?"

"Have you ever lost?" Ozpin asked. He was sitting across from her, holding a drink of his own.

"I don't recall a specific occurrence, but it must have happened, right?"

"It might not have."

"Even so, she was amazing. So incredibly powerful. I've felt nothing like it."

Ozpin remained silent.

"I've fought plenty of tier zeroes, but never one like that. She was at least as powerful as a Witch. Maybe even beyond that. Even if I had gone all out, seals be damned, I feel like I still might not have won."

"You would have. Her power hasn't grown nearly as much as I expected."

"She didn't use everything at her disposal. Do you know what type three means?"

"No."

"So she probably thought of it herself. That's no fun. How am I supposed to plan for our next battle?"

"You're not. I don't think she has any reason to go up against us."

"Then why do what she did?"

"Defeating you is iconic. I don't know why she needed to do it and I don't want to know. There's a storm brewing and I have every intention of not getting involved in it. We don't want another color war."

"Somehow I doubt your inaction will serve as a deterrent. If anything, it may have the opposite effect."

"Maybe, but I've grown tired of the game of politics. Let them do what they want. If they end up destroying each other, then so be it. Eventually, the Grimm will restore the balance, one way or another."

"I know that. Still, the fact that James is practically occupying Vale leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

"Tell me about it. He wants to continue the tournament."

"That's not a bad thing. The people need reassurance that we're still guarding them."

"Kids fighting each other doesn't leave me with the impression of someone guarding me. If anything, it makes me wonder if they have nothing better to do. Which, combined with what happened today could lead to a very precarious situation."

"The people are unhappy so the Grimm attack. The Grimm attack, so the people are unhappy." Maybe he had the right mindset. Thinking about what the future might bring was starting to become too dangerous. "Still, it makes me wonder what the Grimm would be able to do against someone like the girl I fought."

"That's because you're too young to remember their glory days."

"Is that so?"

"The fall of the faunus empire comes to mind. Back then, most faunus were stronger than you with your seals. A few might have been as strong as you without them."

"I don't recall a faunus empire." Glynda said.

Ozpin laughed. "Now you're just making me feel old."

"Do I even want to know, how many years ago that was?"

"Must have been two hundred years ago. Maybe more. It's a little depressing to think that I'm one of about three people that remember an empire that spanned three continents."

Glynda looked a little surprised. "That's a century and a half before I was born."

"You know, you could at least try to not make me feel like a pedophile."

Glynda got off her armchair and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Well you are one. Speaking of, won't you join me in my chambers tonight? It's been a while and I feel like we should properly celebrate it. My first recorded loss."

* * *

 **AN:**

So, as some of you may have noticed, there is a discrepancy between the canon chronology and the chronology in this fanfic. Essentially, a lot of things happened sooner. The current generation of characters was born just in time to see the end of the war, while the older generation (Raven, Qrow, etc.) were born in the final stages.

There really wasn't a good way of making this clear without an author's note, so here you go.


	32. Chapter 29 - Her feelings

Weiss was entirely unenthusiastic about having to fight first thing in the morning for the second day in a row.

Well, she could imagine worse ways of spending her time. She continued stripping everything metal from her body and into Yang's hands. Finally, she gave her Myrtenaster.

"This is a bad idea," Yang said.

"Better than having my own weapon used against me," Weiss said. "Besides, I don't really care enough to try to win."

"Still, going in unarmed is just asking for trouble."

"Oh, it will be fine. Velvet doesn't take a weapon with her when she fights."

"Velvet is a weapon."

"As am I," Weiss said and stretched her arms out. "You don't think my greatest power is my fencing, do you?"

"No," Yang said. "Just be careful."

"I always am," Weiss said and went to the newly rebuilt waiting area. In front of it, she met someone she didn't expect.

"Hi," Coco said. "I have something I'd like to discuss."

"You have about ten minutes," Weiss said. She would have checked her watch, but she left it with Yang.

"I'll get straight to it then. During the breach, you used some sort of drug that enhanced your ability to produce aura. Am I correct in assuming that's not all you have?"

"Yes."

"I need the following:" She passed Weiss a note.

Weiss studied it carefully. It contained six items. "You are an idiot. This could kill you and will definitely get you expelled."

"That doesn't really concern you. Do you have them?"

"I am not your drug dealer. Get them yourself."

Coco looked a little surprised. "I didn't mean to imply you were. I just thought that if you had them it would be easier than me getting them."

"Well I do, but I might need them myself later on. Besides, something like this won't be nearly enough to beat that monster."

Suddenly, Weiss felt a stinging sensation on her cheek. Coco slapped her?

"Say that again and I won't be as nice. Velvet is my friend."

"It's just the truth." Weiss said. She was ready to block another slap.

"You think so because you haven't seen the way she flinches every time she hears that word. It doesn't matter how powerful one is, there are always things that can hurt them."

Interesting. "Sorry," Weiss said. "And try not to do something stupid." Why was she the one lecturing an upperclassman?

She entered the waiting area.

She really was going to fight Pyrrha. Somehow, she wasn't excited at the thought.

She was called out a few minutes later and met Pyrrha in the middle of the reconstructed arena.

Ironwood works fast.

"You're the only person I actually want to fight," Pyrrha said. "If you hold back, I'll force you to take it seriously."

"That's fine by me, but why do you think I'm going to be holding back?"

"You don't have your weapons with you."

"That's a strategic decision," Weiss said. She took out a vial of dust. "This will be my weapon for today."

The countdown finished, so Pyrrha attacked and Weiss blocked with a glyph, and then counterattacked with an explosion. Pyrrha continued attacking relentlessly and Weiss continued doing her best to fend her off.

She didn't really want to lose without at least making it look like she was making an effort, so she launched a multi-glyph attack, containing an ice bind and fire explosion, which Pyrrha chose not to dodge.

The ice bound Pyrrha's feet and the fire exploded in her face. She didn't seem to sustain any significant damage, but Weiss knew her aura would have weakened. She went up, with another sequence, this one consisting of six powerful offensive glyphs.

She was all but out of aura, but that was fine. She was going to do some damage.

Just as she was about to send them out, Pyrrha chose to attack, throwing her spear. Weiss had to use one of her offensive glyphs to block it, and then another for the shield Pyrrha threw.

The shield and spear returned to their master, who was already free of her icy restraints.

Well, whatever, Weiss sent her glyphs to attack Pyrrha, who was already rushing at her.

Pyrrha blocked one, then avoided the second and third and finally, when she was right in front of Weiss, the fourth one hit her square on and exploded.

Pyrrha emerged from the smoke in front of Weiss with her spear point at Weiss' throat.

"So this is the part where I give up, right?" Weiss asked.

"This is the part where I ask you if you're insulting me. This wasn't a fight. I was never in any danger. I refuse to believe you're this worthless. Fight me seriously."

Well, she had a point. "Nah." Weiss turned in order to walk away.

"Are you afraid that if you actually tried, you might lose?"

Weiss froze mid-step.

"That's it, isn't it? If you actually fight with all you've got and still lose, you won't be able to keep up that high and mighty attitude of yours."

"It's not that," Weiss turned back to Pyrrha and said. "I couldn't care less about what anyone thinks about me."

"Then why?"

"You would never understand."

"Try me."

This was probably not very entertaining for the audience, but Weiss didn't particularly care and Pyrrha was too absorbed in the conversation to figure it out.

"Well, I am not the nicest person."

"Agreed. But..."

"Do not interrupt me." Weiss cut her off. "I am not the nicest person, so people don't want to be around me. I make up for it by being useful. If it is revealed that I am actually useless, being friends with me would have no appeal. Therefore, I will not fight you seriously, since you're the kind of enemy I should stand a chance against. Losing to you would be humiliating and what is more, it would prove that I am actually useless."

Why did she say that? Something was seriously wrong with her today.

"Then we can fight again once your aura recovers." Pyrrha said. "A fight where neither of us would have the advantage and there would be no people to see it. If you agree to that, you have my permission to throw the match." She was being strangely understanding.

"I don't need your permission to do anything. What is more, I do not want to fight you."

"Don't you? It sounded like you do. What was that whole you might actually stand a chance against me bit about?"

She might have a point. Still, now that Pyrrha was okay with her throwing the match, she didn't want to do it.

The only thing left for her to do was win.

"Might as well get it over with now," Weiss said.

With the last of her aura, she summoned a bunch of glyphs that formed the shape of Myrtenaster.

"Are you sure that was a good use of your very limited aura?" Pyrrha asked.

Weiss grinned. "Let me ask you this. Between a girl who's been beating up schmucks at tournaments for a couple of years and a girl who has been receiving the training necessary to reach S rank since she was four, who do you think has the better technique?" Weiss put her off hand behind her back and her left foot forward, getting into a basic fencing position. "You will not be able to touch me."

Pyrrha must have thought Weiss was bluffing and that she could finish it easily with a strong attack. She really was bad at poker. Weiss met the overhead spear strike head on and then slashed at Pyrrha, who had to use her semblance to pull her armor out of the way so that she wouldn't get hit. It didn't matter. Her aura was getting depleted either way.

Weiss pressed the attack. He sword was right beside Pyrrha, so she twisted it around and did a sideways slash that Pyrrha had to dodge, putting her directly in range of a stabbing attack. She managed to get out of the way with her semblance's help not only once, but all three stabs. Pyrrha then tried to counterattack by slashing Weiss' back with her spear, which was directly behind the heiress. Weiss blocked it from over her shoulder and then used her better leverage from using a shorter weapon at close range to move the spear to over her other shoulder, then slid her sword along the shaft and at Pyrrha, who had to resort to some not-so-subtle manipulations to avoid her sword.

Weiss had no time to lose. She closed the distance again, before Pyrrha could regain her balance and attacked with a straight jab that Pyrrha could easily block, but that was the point. As long as Pyrrha was unable to regain her footing and had to keep stepping back, Weiss had the upper hand.

Weiss realized that Pyrrha had given up on dodging and kept blocking her strikes. She must have noticed that, since she couldn't manage a counterattack before Weiss had another attack ready, which she had to dodge, her only choice was to solidify her defense.

It was exactly what Weiss had been waiting for.

She delivered a series of powerful strikes, followed by a weaker one that Pyrrha, surely enough, blocked with one hand, with the idea of spinning the spear around and hitting Weiss.

That was when Weiss brought her right hand out and threw one of the four locking glyphs she made in preparation for this at Pyrrha's spear hand. Then she quickly trapped her other limbs as well before activating the acceleration glyphs that formed every piece of her glyph sword, except for the core of blade, put them in front and shot Pyrrha at point-blank range, piercing what little aura she had left and impaling her with the glyph sword.

Pyrrha fell to her hands and knees.

"Let me explain to you why you lost." Weiss said. "Your first mistake was not realizing how much lighter a sword made of glyphs was going to be. Your second was getting me inspired enough to risk using my most dangerous power."

Pyrrha tried to push herself up but Weiss kicked her in the chin, sending her sprawling back.

"I guess you're not going to give up from just that," she said, grabbed her arm and started dragging an uncooperative Pyrrha to the edge of the ring. She swung her over her shoulder and threw her out.

"And miss Nikos is out." She heard Port announce. That was the first time Weiss noticed the commentary.

"Quite literally," Oobleck added. "Looks like this is one to watch the replay for, folks."

Weiss looked up at the stands. She couldn't wait to see Ruby's face upon seeing her beat Pyrrha, of all people. Then she remembered.

And realized that fighting was only going to make her feel more depressed.

* * *

After the fight, Weiss didn't feel like watching the rest, so she decided to retire early and went back to the dorm.

She couldn't stop her arms from shaking. Why did she use that power? Why did she get so caught up in the moment?

She lay down on her bed and listened to music for a few hours, then went out to get some food.

* * *

Yang returned to the room after the day's fights were over.

"Your fight was amazing," she said to Weiss. "I have no idea how you did it, but you managed to beat her."

"I don't really want to talk about it," Weiss said. "We could watch the commentary."

They turned it on.

What greeted them was a wanted poster with Ruby's face on it. She was wanted for questioning.

It was replaced by Port and Oobleck.

"Today may not have been nearly as exciting as yesterday was," Exciting was a word that could be used to describe it. "however in terms of battles, we have quite a bit to discuss. The big thing today would be the amazing battle of Weiss Schnee versus Pyrrha Nikos." Oobleck said.

"Indeed," Port continued. "And since we have received permission from Weiss to discuss it in great detail, you can be certain we will tell you exactly what happened."

"You gave them permission?" Yang asked.

"I don't remember it, but I don't remember a lot from right after the match. I don't really care either way." Weiss answered.

"As you can see," Oobleck was talking. "At this point, both contestants have barely any aura left, however Weiss has run out of dust, meaning that she is at a very significant disadvantage. However, after a provocation from Miss Nikos, which we have chosen to not disclose, she summons a sword, made of her own semblance with the rest of her aura."

The recording of the battle slowed down considerably. "Now this is the interesting part. If you look carefully, you will see what looks like the sword moving Weiss's arm instead of the other way around. Now, this clearly explains why Miss Schnee was able to match Pyrrha's swordplay. If you look carefully, you can clearly see Miss Nikos's sword doing the exact same thing."

"Which means that they are both using their semblances to fight, rather than the energy of their bodies," Port said.

"That actually leads us into the main topic of today's discussion," Oobleck said. "As you can see, Weiss is moving the blade with her semblance. But is she not supposed to have run out of aura? If so, how is she doing it?

"The answer is something very few people are familiar with. Most of you are probably familiar with the word mana, am I right? While most of you will think of games when I say it, that word actually has an application in the real world as well. You see, there are people in this world, capable of fueling their semblances with their own physical stamina. They do it by transforming that strength into a pure energy, called mana, which they then use as a substitute to aura for their semblance."

"So that's what she used," Port said. "But if there is such a thing, why doesn't everyone use it?"

"Because it is very difficult to learn and some people may even be incapable of using it. What is more, most fighters use massive amounts of their physical stamina while fighting, so something like this would be of no use to them. But all that pales in the face of the fact that mana is a very volatile substance. Improper use could end up in rather explosive results inside of the user's body."

"Ouch," Port said. "Definitely not something to use when you're out of aura then."

"That depends solely on the skill of the person using it," Oobleck said. "And I think we all agree that it was a very skillful performance."

They played a commercial.

* * *

"Mana. I never knew that was a thing," Yang said.

"It isn't a thing," Weiss said. "It's a gimmick. A one-time trick."

"It looked pretty impressive to me."

"It wouldn't have worked if Pyrrha knew about it."

"I wonder. If you had been fighting seriously from the beginning, who knows."

"I don't want to talk about it."

That put an end to the conversation. They watched the replays in silence until the end.

"You know," Yang said. "You're more impressive than you let on. You didn't use that power until now, in spite of the many times when it would have proven useful."

"Do you know what the primary use of mana is?"

"I can imagine," Yang said. After all, something that dangerous should only be used in the most dire of circumstances. It was precisely in those that it would be easiest for the user to make a mistake.

"Human bombs were really popular in the war," Weiss said, confirming Yang's suspicions.

"You're an idiot," Yang said.

"I don't need you to tell me that."

"Why do you even know such a technique?"

"It's a fun one," Weiss said. "I chose to learn it, thinking it would be nice to use something with such a dark past for a different purpose. Turns out, it's quite useless if you're planning on surviving."

"Were you not?"

"I was. It just isn't really efficient. My physical stamina isn't exactly great. I wouldn't have been able to do much if I didn't see Winter make her sword yesterday. Manipulating something like that is much easier on me than attacking with glyphs and I got to benefit from my swordplay as well."

"So wait, Winter's the reason you won?"

"She has her rare moments of brilliance. Speaking of, I really need to track my car down. I shudder to think what color she may have painted it in."

"Hot pink probably," Yang said.

"Definitely," Weiss said. "Anyway, we should go for dinner, right? Although I'm not really sure where we can go at this hour. We don't have a car either."

"I think Jaune has a portable stove," Yang said. "We could raid the kitchens for some meat."

"Or we could just cook there. I don't think anyone's going to care."

"Or we could talk to Nora," Yang said. "If we're looking for food, it makes sense to go to the biggest glutton in Beacon."

"I doubt she has that title," Weiss said. "And even if she did, I don't want to see Pyrrha."

Yang sighed. "Do you want to wait until dawn then?"

"I don't really mind. I have some nicotine gum. It should kill our appetites and keep us awake."

"I have a better idea," Yang said with a coy look in her eye.

"Really? I thought you were hungry."

"This kind of stuff goes to a different stomach."

She was hungry _and_ horny? What a great combination.

Weiss got up from her bed and leaned over Yang's. She grabbed her arms and held her down to the bed.

Yang looked up at her.

"Aren't you supposed to be the one taking charge?" Weiss asked in a hushed voice.

"It's not like I have more experience with this kind of thing than you do," Yang said. "Besides, you're doing a pretty good job."

Weiss bent down and planted a very chaste kiss on Yang's lips.

Yang's eyes opened. "I expected something more."

Weiss looked slightly frustrated and confused. She felt up Yang's shirt and then pulled on her vest.

In the meantime, Yang continued to kiss her.

Weiss continued by unbuttoning Yang's vest, touching her breasts through the thin cloth of her shirt.

Yang noticed that Weiss' hands were trembling, although she couldn't say if it was because of excitement or nervousness. Weiss' hands went their separate ways, one up, pushing one of Yang's arms over her head, the other down, towards her nether regions.

She was really getting into it, wasn't she? Yang took her one free hand and caressed Weiss' cheek, only to feel something damp on it.

Immediately, her entire body froze. Weiss quickly pinned Yang's other arm as well and Yang could clearly see her face, streaked with tears.

She didn't know what to do. She couldn't even do anything if she wanted to. Weiss was holding her with what seemed to be all of her strength, her nails biting into Yang's arms.

"You don't have to force yourself," Yang said. She didn't know what else to say.

They stared at each other for a long time. Tears continued making their way down Weiss' cheeks and onto Yang's shirt.

"I don't want to hurt you," Yang whispered as gently as she could.

Weiss' face contorted into an expression that oozed determination. "I do," she said and bent down.

She painfully bit Yang's neck. When she raised her head, there was a bit of blood on her mouth.

Yang could only continue staring at her.

"Why are you okay with this?" Weiss whispered. Her nails dug in deeper, probably leaving another mark into Yang's skin.

"Honestly," Yang whispered back. "I kind of like it. The side of you you don't let anyone else see."

"You don't know me at all." Weiss let go and walked away from the bed.

At the door, she turned around and said, "I hate people like you."

Weiss went to the public showers and scrubbed herself until her skin was raw.


	33. Chapter 30 - The broken pieces

"Weiss! Your match is next," Yang said when she finally found her.

"Fuck the match," Weiss said.

That was the first time Yang heard Weiss swear. "What do you mean fuck the match? Why did we spend all that effort getting this far?"

"I said fuck the fucking match. I don't care anymore. There's no one there to see it anyway." She was trying to get to her bed, but Yang did her best to make that as hard as possible.

"Weiss, listen, I know it's hard with everything that happened, but you have to keep it together. I'm doing my best not to fall apart too, you know."

"And doing better than me," Weiss said. "Good job. Congratulations. Now leave me alone."

Then Yang realized what was wrong with her.

"Have you been drinking?"

"None of your goddamn business. What are you, my mother?"

"Weiss," Yang tried to say in a gentle voice, but she didn't really have anything to follow up with.

"Just fuck off, okay? I need to be alone for a while."

"I'm not leaving you like this."

Weiss finally turned around to face Yang. "Yeah, you are."

"No, I'm not. Nothing you say can change that. You're the last one left. I'm not letting you go that easily."

"You know, that's always been the problem with you. You're too clingy. You don't know when something's over and it's time to go home. Ruby figured it out. Blake did. You're the only one too dense to get that this is as far as we get. I'm the Schnee heiress. You're nothing. Barely managed to get into Beacon. Barely managing to keep up with the rest of us. You have done nothing to help us when the time came. On the train, the best you could do was sacrifice yourself. Now, you think you can somehow save this situation, do you not? I have some news for you. You can't. You never could have. Ruby was doing okay, but she isn't around anymore. Now, all that is left is you and I can't bring myself to look at you. You failed. There is nothing more you can do. The team is done. Beacon itself might be done for. And guess what, you can't do a thing the same way you can't do a thing for me. The same way you couldn't do a thing for Ruby or your mother."

Every word felt like a slap.

"Are you done?" Yang asked. She had no idea where all of this came from. She tried to get closer to Weiss and console her, but was met by the point of a rapier.

"I don't have time to waste on you," Weiss said. "Right now, I don't have to tolerate you anymore so I can say this in peace: Fuck off and never come back. I don't want to see your ugly mug ever again."

"Do you really mean it?"

Weiss looked down for a second, then stared straight into Yang's eyes. "Every word."

So that was the real Weiss? Why did Yang even bother trying to get to know her?

"When you're cold and alone, dying in a ditch somewhere, remember that it could have been different," Yang said.

"Just sod off, you cunt."

Yang picked up her coat and left. There was nothing else for her here.

She just kept walking. And walking. She didn't want to think.

To her surprise, she found herself outside of Junior's club. Going inside, she saw that there was a woman waiting for her. For some reason, she was glad to see her.

"You look like someone just took a shit on your face and told you to eat it," Raven greeted her. Why did Yang feel relief when she first saw her?

"Just leave me alone," she said.

"Is that any way to treat the dear mother who's worried about you?"

"Let me ask you this," Yang said. "What happened to you to make you this way? Did all your friends die in front of you or something?"

"Something like that," Yang had hoped to trigger some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder in her, but Raven looked unperturbed by the question. "You see, it all started on a warm autumn day..."

"I don't care," Yang cut her off. She went on to look straight ahead, ignoring any attempts Raven made at getting her attention.

Then she saw Junior with a worried smile.

"You son of a bitch."

* * *

The days passed in a blur. Weiss didn't get out of her room much. She had alcohol delivered there and spent her time on her scroll. She would laugh out loud at funny things, scream at scary things and cry to sad things. When she found out she could play games against other people, she profoundly enjoyed using horrible words against them, tormenting and humiliating them regardless of whether she won or lost. Her days were spent having as much fun as possible.

There was one problem, though. She tried to keep herself awake as much as possible, but from time to time she didn't manage it. Whenever she closed her eyes, she was assaulted by dreams of people she knew yelling horrible things at her. That part was not as fun.

On the fifth day, she was tired of it all. She was so bored she could scream. And she did. She screamed for hours. She heard people gathering outside of her door, but no one dared enter. It was fun to think of herself as a ghost haunting Beacon, of whom everyone was afraid.

On the seventh day, she started banging her head on the walls from time to time, trying to put her thoughts in order. It didn't work very well, so she started drinking a little more. It was fun to throw bottles and other breakable items around the room.

On the ninth day, she had the brilliant idea of taking everything her teammates had left in the room and burning it in the middle of the night. It was actually kind of fun.

On the tenth day, she went to see Ozpin.

"I want to go on a mission," she said.

"I have one. Go to class," Ozpin said without even looking up at her. He pressed some buttons on his desk. Weiss was sure he was only pretending to be busy.

"I don't want to," Weiss said.

"Then stop drinking."

Weiss dug her nails into her palm, the pain giving her a short moment of clarity. "Not happening."

"Then kill yourself."

Weiss considered that for a moment.

"There isn't a good place to do it in my room. It would stress the rest of your students if I did it at the entrance, which is by far the best spot."

"I don't mind," Ozpin said.

"What's the reward for completing the mission?"

"The sweet release of death."

"Sounds good," Weiss said and turned to leave. She heard him slam something down.

"Wait."

"What?" Weiss turned only her head to ask.

"I had some recruiter in my office a few days ago. She said she wanted people for the front lines. I told her I didn't have anyone I could spare."

Front lines? Weiss wasn't really familiar with the Vale army's movements, but she knew that anything would be better than staying here. "Sounds good."

"It doesn't. The living conditions will be far from what you're used to. How long have you gone without hot water or electricity? Or warm food? Forget that, when was the last time you didn't have heating during the winter?"

He didn't seem to understand the situation. Weiss was a little worried her hand might start to bleed from the pressure she was applying. She turned to face him.

"I am on my last shred of sanity here. I'd rather not be here when it gives away."

He finally looked up.

"So it is true that you intentionally chased your last teammate away."

"Yang deserves better than me. I'll be happy if she gets someone who treats her the way she deserves to be treated."

"You know, people don't like it when you make decisions for them. Yang may have deserved better, but the one she wanted was you."

Weiss felt like she was going to explode, but she fought against it long enough to say: "You don't know that."

"You're right. I don't know anything. You're the one who knows."

"I'm not here to play word games."

With that, Weiss left. Then she realized she was being stupid and went back in to get the contact information for the recruiter.

She had four small wounds on the palm of her hand.


	34. Chapter 31 - Impossibe odds

"This is a bad idea," Fox said. He could smell the concoction Coco was mixing and it was the most putrid smell he had ever experienced.

"It's a great idea," Coco said. "This is a weapon."

The amount of mental gymnastics Coco's semblance allowed for was incredible, so she definitely knew what she was getting into. That only served to make him more anxious.

Finally, Coco mixing everything, put it in a syringe and stabbed herself in the neck. She pushed down on the plunger as hard as she could.

"You know, you're really stupid," Fox said.

"That I am," Coco said. She could feel the effects of her concoction coursing through her veins. Her hands were starting to shake, but she willed them to stop. "It's time."

"You're officially the stupidest person on Remnant," Fox said.

"I know."

"Stupider than me!"

"I know."

"Stupider than a rat!"

Coco closed her eyes. She could hear her blood rushing into her head. She felt nauseous. Her vision swam for a second.

"I know," she managed to say one last time and put her leg up in order to go into the waiting area.

It felt light. Actually, her entire body felt light. Her mind too, started to feel like it was going to float away. She bit the knuckle of her index finger in an attempt to return to the ground, but she felt no pain, even when she tore through the skin.

Walking into the waiting area, she felt as if she was walking through jelly. Her movements felt slowed down, compared to her brain, which she could barely reign in from going all over the place. She steeled herself and waited until she was called. It was the longest five minutes in her life.

She checked every single one of her weapons what felt like a hundred times before she was finally given the go-ahead to enter the arena.

In the middle, she met her opponent. Coco could tell that Velvet knew something was different, but she hoped that she wouldn't get the chance to figure out exactly what before it was too late.

Then, the battle began. Coco quickly got her handgun out of its holster and shot at Velvet, who leaned out of the way of the bullet. Normally, that would have been check-mate right there, however, Coco aimed her next shot where she deduced Velvet would be.

She heard Velvet's surprised yelp at actually being hit, however she didn't have time to actually revel in it. She quickly threw two mines to seemingly random places. She had spent over a week deducing the perfect spot to place them.

In that time, Velvet had summoned a sword and was running at Coco.

She clearly expected Coco to fall back, which she should have, had the situation been any different. However, this wasn't the time to give ground. Coco transformed her handgun into a dagger, at the same time pulling her other gun out of its holster.

She pushed Velvet's overhead strike to the right with her dagger and shot her at point-blank with her left hand.

Velvet quickly fell back. With her strong aura, she, no doubt, barely felt it, however the fact that she took such a serious hit clearly shook her.

Coco quickly holstered her guns and grabbed the assault rifle on her back. At the same time, she threw another mine with her left hand.

Then she opened fire, which was blocked by a wall of swords Velvet managed to conjure at the very last second.

Very soon, Velvet would be forced to start using her semblance and the real battle was going to begin. Or so Coco thought as she pulled the pin of a grenade and threw it at Velvet, at the same time moving to the side so that she would get a clean shot at her.

And yet, instead of continuing to defend, Velvet sent two swords out, one knocking the grenade away and the other hitting Coco in the shoulder.

Coco didn't feel a thing, so she continued her assault. She shot three bullets, all of them finding their mark, then swung her rifle as another sword came for her.

She deflected it almost completely, but the hilt clipped her cheek as it passed by her. She didn't even blink.

"I have realized something," Velvet said while sending out another sword.

"What?" Coco asked, taking this chance to shoot at her.

"You do not feel pain and your reaction time is less than half of what it should be. You are doped up out of your mind." She said while blocking with her swords.

"I told you I have plans on how to beat you. This is one of them." Coco was going to say more, but had to roll out of the way of three swords that would have impaled her if she didn't. She was being a lot more ferocious that Coco expected. Could she actually be angry?

"You know, I usually fight in a way that allows me to win without hurting my opponent or getting hurt. However, it does not look like I am capable of hurting you when you are like this, so I will alter my tactics a little. I will win without killing you."

"Bring it," Coco said. She could never be satisfied with winning against anything other than Velvet's best.

"Do you know what an aura duel is?"

"No."

"It is a fight between two aura users, in which they try to tear apart the aura of the other with their own. I do that subconsciously. In fact, I have to suppress it when fighting mock battles so that I do not accidentally injure someone."

With those words, she shot towards Coco. Coco tried to get out of the way, but she was not fast enough and Velvet's fist connected to her side.

It went straight through her aura. She couldn't feel the hit, but she knew that did some serious damage.

"Now that I think about it, I don't need to use my evolution for this. After all, you're just a rabid dog right now."

She brought her other hand down, striking Coco on the shoulder.

Coco kicked away from her, but Velvet grabbed her foot and swung her into the air. Then she jumped up to reach her and Coco saw her chance. She took out the double-barreled shotgun strapped to her thigh and pulled both triggers.

Velvet covered her face, although she probably didn't need to. Coco threw the empty shotgun away and grabbed her assault rifle with both hands, using it to block Velvet's next strike. She pulled the trigger and the bullets whizzed past where Velvet's face used to be.

The problem was, that Velvet managed to grab her rifle. Coco quickly cut the strap which held it to her body, since allowing herself to be grappled by Velvet was a sure-fire way of ensuring her loss.

As she did that, she used her other hand to grab a flash-bang grenade, one she had specifically shortened the fuse of, and set it off between them. Since Velvet didn't expect it to go off as soon as it did, she didn't close her eyes and was disoriented long enough for Coco to hit the ground.

Coco quickly pulled the pin of another fragmentation grenade and then ran in the direction of one of her mines, which she was sure Velvet had already forgotten about. She took out her handguns and turned around just in time to see the grenade explode.

She was just far away to mostly avoid the damage and opened fire.

She was amazed to see that Velvet was blindly rushing through the smoke and bullets, stepping right on the mine.

A large explosion, almost deafening, rang through the arena and out of it flew Velvet, rearing her arm back for a punch.

Coco was too distracted to react to the fist that embedded itself in her cheek, blowing her away again.

Her ears rang and she felt something dripping on her lip and when she tasted it, she realized it was blood.

It might be internal bleeding on top of a concussion. In her current situation, it was nothing to worry about.

The problem was the fist to the stomach Velvet chose to follow up with.

Coco bent over and vomited. Her vomit had a reddish tint to it. She shot her gun at Velvet again and Velvet kicked her across the chest, throwing her in the air again.

The landing didn't hurt. However, Coco couldn't get up. Her body wouldn't listen to her.

"Do you want to keep going?" Velvet asked.

"Of course I do," Coco replied through the blood in her mouth. It had such a disgusting taste. She rolled over to her side and vomited again. This time, it was mostly blood.

Then, she curled up, putting her legs under her and with her hands on the ground, pushed with all of her resolve. She managed to rise to her hands and knees, then with a painful amount of effort, even though the drugs, she rose to her feet.

"Why are you going this far? I wouldn't think less of you if you gave up now."

"There's no way I would ever do that. I know I can beat you. I can feel it. You can tell me it's impossible, but stuff like that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the two of us."

She slowly started stumbling towards Velvet.

"I'll never accept defeat. Why? Because I want to win. I want to win even if it's the last thing I do. I can't let you overshadow me forever. I exist. Right now, no, up to now, my life has led me to this moment. I have lived my entire life for the sake of defeating you. I won't stop. I won't slow down. I will fight you until the very end. Why? Because I have to fight. What is more, I have to win. I want to win. I will win, because right now, the only thing I can see is you losing. I am right here, fighting my reality. If I can't win against you right now, then it is impossible for hard work to overcome natural talent. That is something I cannot accept!" Coco's voice rose towards the end. She hoped that Velvet would hear her battle cry.

Velvet took a step back.

"Right now, in my world, the only existences are me and you!" With that, Coco transformed her assault rifle into a broadsword. "So hit me with your best shot! I will withstand it and defeat you! No matter what!"

"I see," Velvet said. She conjured up her own sword. "It appears I have insulted you gravely." She lowered her head. "I am sorry. From now on, I will fight with my full power, not caring whether you survive or not."

"Bring it!"

Darkness surrounded Velvet for a moment. Then it was absorbed into her, painting her skin in intricate designs. Those designs extended towards her sword and engulfed it as well, warping its shape into a much thinner weapon.

This was the second time Coco saw Velvet use her semblance. It was incredibly terrifying, but she didn't feel paralyzed by her fear. She felt strange. Happy, elated even. Her body felt light, in spite of her condition. Her head was empty. She could feel Velvet's attack coming, but it didn't bother her. She was going to win, after all.

Coco took a single step forward, then she felt as if time had slowed down. She could see Velvet running at her with the same conviction, but her own movements felt like they were frozen in time. Velvet's sword met hers and passed through as if it wasn't there at all. Then it reached Coco's neck and just as Coco started to come to terms with this being the end of her short life, it stopped, embedded only about halfway.

"I'm sorry," Velvet said. "I'm so sorry. I know I'm a horrible person, but I can't do it. Not you. Never you."

The sword slipped out of Velvet's hand. Coco still felt as if she were trapped in time, but she fought her hardest to extend a hand towards Velvet.

Her body would not listen to her.

She could see a fountain of blood spraying from her neck.

She fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle, the blood pooling around her.

* * *

"You know, I think comparing your intelligence to that of a mammal may have been insulting to mammals. You're more like an insect."

Those were the words that greeted Coco when she managed to open her eyes. She saw only a white ceiling and a lamp, casting painful light onto her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Coco asked. Her mind felt hazy, as if she was still under the influence of the drugs.

"You nearly got your head chopped off for no reason."

"For no reason, I want to punch you."

"Good luck with that."

Coco tried to raise her arm, but couldn't.

"It's broken," For said. "Along with most of your ribs, a leg and your skull. Be happy the nurse was in the mood to give you morphine."

So that was why she couldn't feel a thing.

Although she didn't remember her leg getting broken. Maybe it was when Velvet grabbed it.

"Turn it off."

"You're approaching single-cell organism levels of stupid."

"I'm trying to learn from my stupidity here. Now do it."

He begrudgingly turned some knob.

"Are you sure that's the one?"

"It's the one the nurse used."

Coco took a deep breath. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it should. "You're pretty handy for a blind guy."

She heard him shrug.

"I don't suppose Velvet's been around to see me."

"For some reason, I think she feels guilty for **not** killing you."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm alive, but I am also mad at her for going easy on me."

"Don't you think it was unfair of you to ask her to kill her best friend?"

"It wasn't like that."

"How was it different?"

"I didn't want her to kill me, I wanted her to fight me seriously."

"And you knew what that meant. Besides, she never uses her full power. Even on her enemies. You know this."

It was a depressing thought for her to be the same as everyone else in Velvet's head. However, her final words made Coco think that maybe that wasn't the case.

"Did I get disqualified?"

"From the match, yes. They will allow you to fight in the loser's round if you recover by then. You can thank Velvet for that."

"Doesn't she realize that will only result in us fighting again in the end?"

There was a short silence between them.

"Who will I fight tomorrow?"

"If you bothered to watch my match, you would know."

"Right, I wonder what kept me from doing that."

There was another short silence.

"Jaune Arc," he said. "I wiped the floor with him."

"Can I win?"

"Depending on how much you recover, maybe. He's probably one of the worst students in Beacon, but in your condition, even the worst could beat you."

A few dots connected in Coco's head. "Say, if you won your fight, does that mean you'll be fighting Velvet next?"

"Fighting's a strong word."

"What, are you just going to give up?" She teased him.

"You want me to fight her seriously? I don't think your ego would survive that."

Yeah, right.

Coco's entire body was starting to get engulfed by a dull pain.

"I'm actually a pretty selfless person, you know," she said.

"I want a raise."

"I'll consider it." Her head was starting to hurt. "Now leave me alone. I need to focus on recovering."

He complied and she was left alone to deal with the ever-increasing pain.

That was the worst night of Coco's life.


	35. Chapter 32 - Bonds part 1

Jaune felt horrible.

He wasn't hurt. He just... lost. There was nothing he could have done.

Maybe his previous opponent was at fault? If his second battle had been harder, maybe he would have been more prepared.

Then again, there was nothing he could have done.

Fox completely obliterated him. It was like he had predicted every move Jaune made from the beginning and just played the fight out. Jaune never saw an opening. He never had a chance.

"This is the point where you start trying harder," Nora said from next to him. He had forgotten she was there.

"You saw Coco's last fight," he said. "There's no point."

As he said that, the door opened.

"You would think that," Jaqueline said. "Answer this, though. What do you think would happen if I said that one day?"

She was definitely hiding behind the door, waiting for a good opportunity.

"That's different."

"Yes, it is. My people would die, but you would only lose your pride. But you have to ask yourself, is that something you can afford to lose?"

"I already have."

"Not yet. You lost the last fight, while doing your best. That's very different from losing the next because you don't want to feel inferior to your opponent. What you're feeling right now can't compare to the humiliation you will feel if you just give up without even trying."

"I can't do anything. You know that. You saw the difference between us. Coco is much stronger than the one I fought today."

"So what? Are you telling me that's okay? That if you have no chance, you should just give up? That when things get tough your only choice is to give up?"

"This isn't tough. It's impossible."

Jaqueline paused. She gave Jaune a long, hard look that left him unable to speak. When did his sister become this intense? "Go look at yourself in a mirror. Remember this face you have on right now. That's the face of a loser."

She took a couple of steps forward. "Mom and dad made time to see you fight tomorrow. Don't disappoint them."

She turned around and went to the door. "Jill will also be there."

With those words, she went out.

Jaune's head fell into his hands.

"What am I supposed to do?" He asked nobody in particular.

* * *

Jaune didn't sleep. He went to the roof as soon as the sun started appearing over the horizon and sat down.

A few minutes later, Pyrrha joined him.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," she said.

"That's quite the turnaround, from sending my sister to our room." He said.

Pyrrha remained silent for a while.

"I'm sorry," she finally said. "I've had some time to think and I was wrong."

Her words pierced straight through him. He couldn't breathe.

"You weren't. I'm just afraid. I don't want to lose. I don't want to feel like this. I... I'm the worst."

Pyrrha's feet kicked around from over the edge. "Please. These past few days I have held the audience hostage in a fight, I turned Weiss into whatever that thing living next to us is, and I tried to turn your family against you. I think I that in a competition of who is more horrible, I would win."

"What can I say, I'm a loser." The word felt painful when it left him.

"You can if you want to be." Pyrrha sat up. "Now, would you like to train?"

"Now?"

"If you want. I've been thinking about what I could teach you that could help you in the next fight."

"I won't refuse any help," Jaune said.

"Good. Now, first off, Coco's semblance and weapons have some sort of connection. Unfortunately, I have no idea what. However, there is a limit to how much dust you can carry into the arena. A limit that I think she got around, somehow."

Jaune raised his hand in order to interrupt her. "Could I take any dust with me that would help me?"

Pyrrha thought about it. "I suppose. A gun in your hands would be useless, but there are certain dust-based weapons that are easy to use. Unfortunately, they are weapons, which might mean that Coco could somehow use them against you. Although... Can I see your shield?"

"Sure, why?" He unfolded it and gave it to her.

"I was thinking we could infuse it with explosive dust, as a form of reactive armor. It would take too long, though." She gave it back.

Jaune took it and folded it back up. He was not ready to have this particular shield modified.

"What other weapons?" he asked.

"Grenades and the like. Not a great idea. I'll need to think about it. There is something else we could do, though."

"What?"

"I'm not really sure you're ready for it."

Really? After all that? Jaune fought not to let his frustration show on his face.

"What is it?"

"An evolution. I think that as you are now, you might be able to gain one."

Jaune didn't know what that was. But he did know he needed it. "How does it work?"

"You think about what you need in order to win. That is all."

"Really?"

"Yes. If this fight will be as tough as you think, the desire to win should be enough."

It sounded too good to be true. Way too good.

"What is the drawback?"

She looked down at her legs. "You would never be the person you are now."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What I said. You would change. I don't know if it will be for better or for worse."

Way too fishy. Jaune learned not to take a gamble like this on his first week at Beacon.

"You were right. I'm not ready." He sat up. "Anything else you could teach me?"

"Well, there is one other idea I had." She also sat up. "We have six hours until you need to fight. In that time, I could fight you without holding back. If we take five hours, you should be able to get back just enough aura to make fighting Coco possible."

It was a plan. The best they were likely to come up with.

"We shouldn't waste any more time."

* * *

The sun was bright. Ant hot. In his armor, Jaune felt like he might overheat, in spite of the cold shower he finished his training with.

A few minutes later, he was joined by Coco.

She was visibly limping and her neck looked like it was joined together with staples. Moreover, she had dark circles under her eyes and was far too pale.

She looked sick. Wounded. Like she shouldn't be fighting.

And yet, a tiny voice in his head was rejoicing at the sight. He might actually have a chance now.

"You know, I thought a lot about what I want to do here." He said. "In the end, I want to beat you. But in the state you're in, I don't feel like that would really be worth anything."

She didn't respond.

The fight started. She immediately pulled a gun out and fired at him. Jaune could see it coming and had already raised his shield. The bullet bounced off harmlessly.

"I have to ask," he said. "Why not use your minigun? You didn't use it against Velvet either."

At the mention of Velvet, Coco's hand immediately moved to her neck. She took it away immediately. "It is too bulky," she said in a low, tired voice. "Not useful for gladiatorial combat."

She took the assault rifle on her back and used it to support herself. Then, she slowly started moving towards Jaune.

He felt sorry for her. He needed to end this quickly.

He advanced and attempted to hit her with the flat of his blade, but it was stopped by the rifle. Then, the rifle transformed into a sword, which Coco swung at him.

He could see the attack. It was simple. He blocked it. Just as he did, he felt a pain in the side of his chest.

Coco's handgun, now in the form of a dagger, had gone between the armored plates and into his side. He didn't see it. He couldn't defend against things he couldn't see. He fell back.

"I have to ask," Coco said. Her face was distorted with pain. "Why do you suddenly think you have a chance. You should be aware of the difference between us. Now that I know Velvet's technique, I can use my aura as a weapon. I am a lot stronger than I was yesterday."

"Because I want to win," Jaune said. Maybe he shouldn't let her talk. Although, he was certain attacking was even more painful for her.

"Do you have some sort of plan?"

"No. In fact, I have no idea what I'm doing."

He swung at her. She dodged under his sword and brought hers against his chest, leaving a gash in the armor.

He retaliated, almost instinctively, his sword grazing her chest, but failing to go through the aura.

He continued his assault. All he needed to do was outlast her. In her condition, it was possible.

She backed up a couple of paces and he followed her. She took the opportunity to drop her gun-dagger and take the sword with both hands. She parried his overhead blow and stabbed into his unprotected stomach.

Jaune could see red. It hurt. He was hurt. More hurt than he had ever been before. How could she bypass his aura so easily? His greatest asset was useless.

He fought against the pain and blindly swung his sword in an arc. It clanged, bouncing off Coco's, giving her another opportunity to attack, but he raised his shield just in time.

That's right. He had more than one defense.

He held his shield up and carefully looked for any tells as to where she was going to attack next.

He blocked. And blocked. Three, four, five consecutive attacks. Then, he attacked. And blocked the counterattack.

She was getting frustrated. He could still outlast her.

"Why are you trying so hard?" He heard her voice, which held even more pain than before.

He didn't want to talk. It was painful for both of them. But he needed to.

"Because I want to prove that I belong here. I've been a nuisance to my team since the day we met. I want to prove that I do belong in Beacon. That I can be a hunter. I want to be the one that saves them one day. When I write home, I don't want to write only about my team's accomplishments, I want to write about my own. That's why I will win. No matter what."

She chuckled, then doubled over in pain. "Usually I love irony, but I have to say, right now, I hate it."

She attacked. Jaune defended.

"You wanted to win too, didn't you?"

The answer was a flurry of strikes, all hitting his shield.

"You wanted to prove something too, didn't you?"

It was his time to attack. She couldn't defend in time and her aura absorbed another blow.

"You see that girl over there? Second row, in the horde of blondes. That's my youngest sister Jill. Do you think I can afford to lose again?"

She didn't look away. She must have dismissed it as a ploy to distract her.

"She always wanted to be a fighter."

He continued attacking. Coco's defense was crumbling. He didn't want to hurt her.

His next attack, Coco reached out with one of her hands, as if to catch it.

He stopped his sword. He couldn't do it. In her condition, he might cut a finger off.

She saw the opportunity and swung her sword with one hand, aiming at his neck.

At the same time, Jaune saw an opening as well. Instead of protecting his neck, he slashed at the handle of Coco's sword.

He wrenched it away from her just before it would have cut him. He did it. He disarmed her. She would be forced to admit her defeat now.

Except she did not do that. Instead, she raised her fists.

This woman is insane.

He raised his sword for an attack, but he couldn't make it fall. He couldn't strike an unarmed woman.

Coco quickly punched him in the chest and he felt something crack. The pain in his abdomen flared up.

Unarmed? This woman is a weapon.

He brought his shield between them, absorbing her attacks.

Each one was weaker than the last.

"Don't make me do this," he said, almost to himself.

Coco grinned. She was going to make him do it.

It was pathetic. He couldn't bring a woman, who looked like she was on the verge of death, to surrender.

He threw his sword away. It wouldn't do more harm than good in this situation. Then, he took another punch, getting just close enough to grab her, and pulled his body's weight onto her. Forcing both of them to the ground.

"Isn't this enough?"

Still grinning, she tried to get out from under him. He did his best to hold her arms down.

"Hey, isn't this enough? Do we have to continue?"

Her expression softened, then split into a grin again.

This woman. This FUCKING woman. She was so infuriating. He wanted to hit her. He wanted to beat her to death. He wanted to...

Pain. White-hot, crippling pain.

As a man who grew up with five tomboys, he knew that pain very well. He held her, in spite of feeling like he was going to throw up, he held her in place. He quickly worked his legs in between hers to avoid it happening again.

There was an anger he had never felt before. Hate, even.

It was enough.

He grabbed his shield with both hands and brought it down on her face.

He saw her face, still grinning, although she was now missing her two front teeth.

He brought it down again.

And again.

And again.

And again, until she stopped struggling.

* * *

"I just beat a woman into unconsciousness," Jaune said to his reflection.

It was quite sobering. His hands stopped shaking.

After him, Nora lost her fight with Yatshuhashi.

Tomorrow, he would have to fight her, and if by some miracle, he won, he would have to fight Velvet.

He might have to do it again.


	36. Chapter 32 - Bonds part 2

For the second day in a row, Jaune felt like he was going to burn up. The sun beat at his head and shoulders relentlessly.

He had slept on the roof, since he wanted to avoid Nora for as long as possible.

Now, he was face to face with her. He knew how she fought. In fact, he knew it so well it was almost frightening.

Nora was a brute force he had no idea how to deal with.

The hammer cracked against his shield, forcing him back. By the time he had recovered, he had no choice, but to block the next strike.

He couldn't meet her head on.

He knew that, and yet, he had no way out.

He couldn't dodge, not with his armor and shield slowing him down.

And yet, without them, he would be defenseless.

A single solid hit would be enough to end the fight.

Even without Nora using her electricity on anything other than herself, he was already losing.

That reactive armor idea Pyrrha had sure would have come in handy.

But even with it, Nora would have probably been able to dominate the arena with ease.

After all, she had all the strengths of a heavy hitter and none of the weaknesses.

Normally, Grimm with the level of brute force Nora could wield would be slow and easy to hit, but for Nora, it was the opposite. She was faster and more agile than Jaune.

Luckily, she wasn't fighting strategically. If she tried to corner him, it would be over in an instant.

Jaune felt like his teammate was playing with him. She single-mindedly continued to attack him, probably thinking that she would need nothing more to win.

She wasn't entirely wrong.

What did Pyrrha teach him about fighting enemies with overwhelming power? To end it quickly? He couldn't do that. To draw the fight out? Nora could easily outlast him, especially in this heat. To use her power against her?

That might actually work.

Instead of blocking, he tried angling his shield so that the hammer would continue its movement. He felt a sharp pain in his wrist, but he also saw an opening in the minute time it took Nora to stop the hammer and rear back for her next attack.

In that instant, he lunged forward, sword-first right into the center of Nora's body.

His sword was stopped in place, while he himself continued moving. Nora had let go of her hammer with her right hand, and caught the sword. She swung, while gripping the sword, but because she only used one hand, it was slower. Just slow enough for Jaune to close the distance completely and ram Magnhild's handle with his shield.

The hammer was deflected and he had just enough time to kick Nora with both legs and wrench his sword from her hand.

It was at this point that he realized something. Against a weapon with as much reach as Magnhild, getting close to the incredibly strong girl wielding it was his only choice.

It was a horrible idea.

He reached over to his left side with his shield and ducked, the hammer glancing off and knocking him off balance, however, he forced his legs to keep carrying him forward, ignoring the pain from pushing them to their limits.

As Nora reared back for another strike, he saw his opportunity and instead of attacking or blocking the hammer, he put his shield in front of him and crashed into her.

It was at this point that he realized something he should have a long time ago.

He was heavier. Nora may be stronger, but he theoretically had her beat in terms of leverage.

Then, he had a very stupid though. He dropped his sword and shield, grabbed Magnhild, then pulled with all his strength.

Naturally, Nora held on, which was exactly what he had counted on.

She held her ground, but he pulled to the side, which gave him the slightest bit of yield, which he focused all of his power on.

Nora's adjusted her stance, giving him just enough slack to change the direction he was pulling in from left to up and right.

She couldn't keep up and her feet were lifted off the ground as Jaune swung her in a circle.

Okay. Now what?

It seemed like a really good idea at the time, but he realized that he couldn't keep spinning like this forever. He was already starting to get dizzy.

Then, he felt a white-hot pain course through his body. His muscles locked up and he stumbled and fell, still holding onto the hammer and, by extension, Nora.

He couldn't move. The electricity coursing through him was too powerful.

Nora got to her feet, still keeping a hand on the hammer. When he got a look at her, her hair was on end. Even in this situation, he couldn't help but smile.

That was all it took for Nora to figure it out. The color drained from her face. The electricity stopped and after a second, he regained control over his body.

"You know this is broadcasted in all four kingdoms," he said through his ragged breath as Nora's hand found its way to her hair.

Jaune felt like laughing. Such a ridiculous thing was going to give him the chance he needed.

He pushed himself up and rolled back before Nora had recovered. His hand found his sword and he rose to his feet. Nora swung her hammer, but he easily dodged away from the careless attack. Then, he took a step forward, feinted attacking Nora's hands on the hammer, then turned his entire body away and altered the direction of his blade, hitting Nora across her neck with as much force as he could muster.

It didn't do any damage, but he continued attacking. Nora was too distracted to block properly, giving him a few more openings.

He didn't take any of them. Instead, he used them all to move to a position where he could strike at the hand that was holding the hammer.

In her surprise, Nora dropped it upon being struck.

That was it.

He knew she wasn't going to use her electricity again, so he jumped on top of her, forcing her to the ground.

She was weaker. She wasn't even using her semblance to enhance her strength anymore. It was all he needed.

Using the experience he gained in his last fight, he positioned himself in a way that would protect his chances of reproduction, and wrapped his hands around Nora's neck.

He squeezed. Nora struggled, but she couldn't overcome the weight difference without her semblance. She dragged her nails over his arms, but he continued squeezing.

Seeing what she went through was terrifying. She thrashed and struggled for breath, but he didn't let her have any.

She scratched at him, but his arms were longer and she couldn't reach his eyes.

He could hardly believe the noises she made came from a human. It was the first time he had heard a person suffocating. He never imagined it would be this violent.

It took too long. Far too long. He could feel the strength leaving his arms, but he persevered.

Finally, the match was called in his favor.

He couldn't look Nora in the eyes. He let her go and quickly exited the arena.

He barely made it to a toilet before he threw up.


End file.
